JP2006197536A - Radio network control device, radio lan relay device, radio communication system, and communication method for radio communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a radio network control device, radio LAN relay device, radio communication system and communication method for radio communication system with which a connection is established on early stage to perform communication after a terminal enters an area of a wireless LAN network. <P>SOLUTION: A radio network control device of the present invention is configured to output required connection information to a terminal which is capable of communicating with a mobile communication network and at least one or more wireless local area network (LAN) access network, in information inputted from a WLAN relay device which performs connection control of the wireless LAN, when the terminal performs communication over the wireless LAN, thereby accomplishing handover between the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN without interrupting packet communication. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a handover technique for continuing communication when a network type changes due to movement during communication in a linkage system between a mobile communication network represented by W-CDMA and a heterogeneous network such as a wireless LAN. It is.

  In recent years, a system has been studied in which a cellular phone capable of communicating in a wide area and a public wireless LAN service capable of high-speed data communication in a narrow area are linked (interworked) and complemented. For example, in such a system, a terminal that can access both a mobile communication network of a mobile phone and a wireless local area network (WLAN) is used. A service for maintaining broadband connection and performing broadband access using a wireless LAN when moving at low speed or stationary is conceivable.

  The interwork system is a 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), and an architecture for realizing a scenario for accessing a packet service of a mobile communication network via a WLAN has been standardized. The 3GPP TS (Technical Specification) 22.234 Its requirements, 23.234 describes the architecture, and 33.234 describes the authentication scheme. Further, Patent Document 1 describes a method for performing packet call handover between mobile phone networks using a home agent 2613. In these systems, an example of a processing method when moving from a cover area of a mobile communication network to a wireless LAN when performing packet access using a terminal that can access both the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN is shown.

  FIG. 26 shows a block diagram of an interwork system constructed by the prior art. In FIG. 26, a terminal 2601 has both mobile communication network and wireless LAN packet access means. In the 3GPP standard, this corresponds to a UE (User Equipment). In the mobile communication network, the first base station device 2602a and the second base station device 2602b mutually convert the radio signal from the terminal 2601 into a wired signal and transmit it. It corresponds to Node B in the 3GPP standard. Further, the first base station apparatus 2602a covers the cell M1, and the second base station apparatus 2602b covers the cell M2.

  The first WLAN access network 2603a and the second WLAN access network 2603b are packet networks based on IP (Internet Protocol) and the like, include an access point for connecting to the terminal 2601, and convert wireless LAN wireless signals into packet signals on the wired network. Convert. It is also assumed that an address assignment operation is performed as a DNS server in the WLAN access network 2603. In the 3GPP standard, it corresponds to WLAN AN (Access Network). The first WLAN access network 2603a covers the cell L1, and the second WLAN access network 2603b covers the cell L2. Both are collectively referred to as a WLAN access network 2603.

  The wireless network control device 2604 is connected to the base station device 2602a via IP, and performs wireless terminal control and transmission of control data and user data in the mobile communication network. It corresponds to 3GPP standard RNC (Radio Network Controller). Even if the connection with the base station apparatus 2603 is ATM, the effect of the present invention can be obtained.

  The first WLAN relay device 2605a and the second WLAN relay device 2605b are connected to the first WLAN access network 2603a and the second WLAN access network 2603b, respectively. Is transmitted. The 3GPP standard corresponds to WAG (Wireless Access Gateway). Both are collectively referred to as a WLAN access network 2603.

  The packet control device 2606 is connected to the radio network control device 2604, and performs packet transmission control processing in the mobile communication network and state management of the terminal 2601 related to packet transmission. It is assumed that the connection of the radio network controller 2604 uses IP. The 3GPP standard corresponds to SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node).

  The mobile network packet relay apparatus 2607 is connected to the WLAN access network 2603 via the IP, and relays packet data from the mobile communication network to the Internet. In 3GPP standard, it corresponds to GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node). Here, one mobile network packet relay device 2607 is arranged for each APN (Access Point Name) that is a domain of the terminal 2601.

  The packet data relay device 2608 is connected to the mobile network packet relay device 2607 and the first WLAN relay device 2605a, and relays data from both to the public packet network 2612. Similar to the mobile network packet relay apparatus 2607, it corresponds to the APN. The connection relationship between the packet data relay device 2608 and the WLAN relay device 2605 is assumed to be a one-to-many relationship.

  The authentication relay apparatus 2609 is connected to the WLAN relay apparatus 2605, and receives authentication data from the terminal 2601 via the WLAN relay apparatus 2605 when the terminal 2601 enters the wireless LAN cover area. It corresponds to AAA Proxy in 3GPP standard.

  The authentication server 2610 is connected to the authentication relay apparatus 2609 and receives authentication data from the terminal 2601 via the authentication relay apparatus 2609. The 3GPP standard corresponds to AAA Server.

  The user information storage device 2611 is connected to the packet control device 2606, the mobile network packet relay device 2607, and the authentication server 2610, and stores the service information that the user has contracted with the communication carrier of the mobile communication network or the wireless LAN network. Has been. The public packet network 2612 is a packet network located in the public. The Internet is one of the public packet networks 2612.

  The home agent 2613 relays the data transmission of the terminal 2601 and changes the data transmission destination according to the movement destination of the terminal 2601. In addition, the location of the terminal 2601 is managed using the mobile IP, and the destination is registered. The opposite node 2614 is a partner with which the terminal 2601 performs packet communication. For example, a server or the like arranged on the Internet is included in the opposite node 2614.

  In addition, a mobile communication network and a wireless LAN that are linked in this system are defined. The mobile communication network refers to a network including a mobile network packet relay device 2607, a packet control device 2606, a radio network control device 2604, and a base station device 2602. The wireless LAN refers to a network composed of a packet data relay device 2608, a WLAN relay device 2605, and a WLAN access network 2603.

  FIG. 27 shows each component of the wireless LAN portion and a stack diagram of each protocol to be processed. The terminal 2601 has a remote IP layer 2702 for communicating with the opposite node 2614 and a transport IP layer 2703 for performing IP communication in a wireless LAN access network. Each IP address is assigned separately and is called a remote IP address and a local IP address, respectively.

  The packet of the remote IP layer 2701 is relayed by the packet data relay device 2608 that becomes the entrance to the public packet network 2612. A tunnel for transmitting the remote IP layer packet between the terminal 2601 and the packet data relay device 2608 is used. 2702 is provided. This tunnel function includes packet encapsulation transmission function, packet header or payload compression function, encryption function, information for setting each function such as encapsulation, compression and encryption method, access point name, etc. The connection settings such as the telephone number and the telephone number are held by the terminal 2601 and the packet data relay apparatus 2608 for each tunnel.

  The transport IP layer is terminated at each node. A packet from the terminal 2601 is terminated at the WLAN access network 2603. L1 (physical layer) and L2 (data link layer) are not specified in the present embodiment.

  In the above system, when packet communication is performed between the terminal 2601 and the opposite node 2614 via the mobile communication network, when entering the wireless LAN area, switching to communication via the wireless LAN is performed. Indicates.

  The IP packet communication of the terminal 2601 is performed in the following form. First, the user's IP packet reaches the opposite node 2614 from the terminal 2601 via each node of the mobile communication network and the home agent 2613. The user's remote IP address is assigned by the mobile network packet relay device 2607 that routes the remote IP address. The home agent 2613 manages a set of a home IP address that is an address in the home network of the terminal 2601 and a care-of address that is an address of the terminal 2601 that is used in a network corresponding to the current location of the terminal 2601 (visited network). The home IP address of the terminal 2601 output from the opposite node 2614 is encapsulated and transmitted to the care-of address.

  Conversely, the IP packet from the terminal 2601 is encapsulated and transmitted in the same manner as the packet in the reverse direction. When the opposite node 2614 supports the Binding Update procedure, it is also possible to transmit directly to the terminal 2601 and the opposite node 2614 without using encapsulation.

  In a mobile communication network, an IP tunnel is created between nodes, and IP packets are encapsulated and transmitted. GTP (GPRS Tunneling Protocol) is used between the mobile network packet relay apparatus 2607 and the packet transmission control means 2606, and between the packet transmission control means 2606 and the radio network control apparatus 2604.

  In the wireless network control device 2604, the IP packet is appropriately converted into a logical channel or a transport channel, and transmitted to the base station device 2602a using the IP transport. The base station device 2602a converts to a W-CDMA physical channel and communicates with the terminal 2601.

  Processing when the terminal 2601 enters the wireless LAN area while performing packet communication 2810a to 2810d is performed as follows. First, in FIG. 28, the terminal 2601 detects a radio wave of the wireless LAN at the cell L1 entry 2801 in the wireless LAN area. The wireless LAN assumes the IEEE 802.11a / b / g standard. In the local connection processing 2802, at the time of local connection, a local IP address is assigned to the terminal 2601 by the first WLAN access network 2603a.

  Thereafter, in the authentication process 2803, the terminal 2601 authenticates the packet access via the WLAN to the user information storage device 2611. For this authentication, the first WLAN relay device 2605a, the authentication relay device 2609 (not shown in FIG. 28), and the authentication server 2610 use EAP (PPP Extensible Authentication Protocol). If the authentication server 2610 does not have information related to the user necessary for authentication, the information is acquired from the user information storage device 2611.

  After the authentication 2803 is completed, the terminal 2601 makes a DNS inquiry in the wireless LAN IP address acquisition process 2804. On the other hand, the first WLAN access network 2603a returns a set of the remote IP address, the FQDN, and the packet data relay apparatus 2608 corresponding to them in all the networks that can be used by the terminal 2601 as a response.

  In the tunnel creation request 2805, the terminal 2601 selects a packet data relay device 2608 from the obtained one in the wireless LAN IP address acquisition processing 2804, and requests to create an IP tunnel using a set of remote IP addresses and FQDNs. The data is output to the packet data relay device 2608. In the authentication completion confirmation processing 2806, the packet data relay apparatus 2608 relays between the authentication relay apparatus 2609 and the authentication server 2610, and confirms that the terminal 2601 has been authenticated.

  Next, in the policy exchange 2807, the packet data relay apparatus 2608 and the first WLAN relay apparatus 2603a exchange packet transmission policies. The policy to be applied is determined by the packet data relay device 2608, and the first WLAN relay device 2603a applies the transmission policy obtained from the packet data relay device 2608.

  After the policy exchange, in tunnel creation processing 2808, the attributes of the tunnel are exchanged between the terminal 2601 and the packet data relay apparatus 2608, and a tunnel between the two is created. Further, the packet data relay apparatus 2608 assigns a remote IP address that is an IP address of the terminal 2601 on the public packet network 2612.

  When the tunnel is created, the terminal 2601 performs remote IP address registration 2808 with respect to the home agent 2613. When the remote IP address is registered, the home agent 2613 changes the transmission destination of the packet from the opposite node 2614 to a new remote IP address.

  When the connections 2810e to 2810i in the wireless LAN are established as described above, the terminal 2601 disconnects the mobile communication network.

  For such interwork systems of mobile communication networks and wireless LANs, when moving between networks of different access technologies, it is necessary to perform both authentication processing and connection processing using core network equipment. There is a problem that takes time.

  On the other hand, Non-Patent Document 1 proposes a method for shortening the switching time associated with handover. This method is an improved method of mobile IP, and performs location management of the terminal 2601 using GPS or the like, and the terminal 2601 predicts the next cell to move based on the management data. When moving to the predicted cell, the authentication process and connection process required when performing handover are performed using a currently communicable cell before moving to the cell. Reduce the switching time. Further, Non-Patent Document 1 discloses a method for simplifying connection setting by estimating the next cell to be moved from the terminal GPS data, IP address and position using the terminal position.

  In Patent Document 2, in a system in which a WLAN access point is connected to a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) network, which is a type of W-CDMA, a terminal moves between the UMTS area and the WLAN area. Discloses a method for performing handover.

  In Patent Document 2, as shown in FIG. 29, a WLAN AP 12903, which is a wireless LAN access point, and a packet control device 2906 are connected via a WLAN IWF (Inter-Working Function) 2905, which is a functional element that interconnects the two. Connected.

  The wireless LAN IWF 2905 and the packet control device 2906 are connected by an Iu-ps interface. In the GPRS specification, when a packet connection is made in a mobile communication network, a primary GPRS context (Primary GPRS context) and a secondary GPRS context (Secondary GPRS context) for storing information related to the packet connection are created. In particular, the secondary GPRS context stores IP address and QoS connection information. In Patent Document 2, a secondary GPRS context related to a wireless LAN network is activated in association with an ongoing packet connection session, and the secondary GPRS context is changed according to the area of the terminal 2901, so that the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN by the terminal 2901 are changed. The network can be used properly.

For example, when a terminal that has already established a connection with a mobile communication network enters a cell L1 that is a wireless LAN network area, a terminal 2901 that has made a packet connection with the mobile communication network in the cell M1 is as follows. Do as follows. First, the terminal 2901 starts connection with the WLAN AP 2903. The terminal 2901 next tries to acquire an IP address in the wireless LAN, but since there is already a connection through the mobile communication network, the terminal cannot obtain a new IP address and uses the existing IP address. However, QoS can be changed. In this way, parameters are set, and a secondary GPRS context for the wireless LAN is added to the mobile network packet relay device separately from the secondary GPRS context of the mobile communication network that is already used. As described above, handover can be realized by creating a secondary GPRS context having different QoS for each network for each terminal and appropriately switching depending on the area where the terminal 2901 exists.
JP 2000-349829 A JP 2004-254278 A IEICE Technical Report RCS2002-209, “Seamless Handoff Method Using Location Information in Mobile IP Networks”, pp. 13-18

  However, in the above method, since resetting is required in both layer 2 and layer 3 communication from authentication 2803 to tunnel creation 2808, there is room for shortening the switching time.

  In addition, when using a method that applies mobile IP, the terminal determines whether or not handover can be performed and selects a switching destination cell. Generally, however, the terminal cannot grasp the usage status of nodes in the network. When a plurality of terminals perform handover in a place where the cells overlap, the switching destinations may be concentrated on the same cell. Therefore, when the capacity of the access point or base station of the cell is exceeded, the network capacity on the network side is excessive, or congestion occurs, there is a problem that call loss occurs during handover.

  In the 3GPP mobile communication network, the IP address of the terminal is assigned when the mobile network packet relay apparatus 2607 is accessed. Therefore, generally, when the cell is changed, the IP address is not changed. Therefore, it is difficult to apply a method based on mobile IP that manages mobility by IP routing.

  When using the system disclosed in Patent Document 2, there are two problems.

  First, since terminal mobility management is performed for each RNC, the problem is that location management of terminals in units of cells is not performed. For example, in order to shorten the switching time at the time of handover in the system of Patent Literature 2, a method of applying the method of Non-Patent Literature 2 to Patent Literature 1 can be considered. However, in order to predict a terminal to be subjected to connection setting processing before movement as in Non-Patent Document 1, radio waves of all terminals accommodated in the area M1 of the mobile communication network adjacent to the WLAN area L1. It is necessary to acquire the strength, wireless communication state, position, moving direction, speed, and the like. However, in W-CDMA, the packet control device 2906 knows the location of the terminal 2901 in units of RA (Routing Area) composed of a plurality of cells, and therefore adjacent to the cell L1 is included in the same RA as the cell M1. All cells that are Accordingly, there is a problem that the calculation amount increases because it is determined whether or not there is a possibility of entering the cell L1 even for a terminal that is not necessary for prediction of the terminal entering the cell L1.

  Further, since it is the packet control device 2906 that connects in the mobile communication network, it is necessary to use Iu-ps (protocol between SGSN and RNC when performing packet communication) as the protocol between them. In particular, Iu-ps is divided into a C-plane for performing control and a U-plane for transmitting user data. However, since GTP (GPRS Tunneling Protocol) is also used in U-plane, in order to realize this interface, New protocols need to be designed.

  In view of the above problems, the present invention predicts the movement of a terminal by using a lower layer mobile communication network or wireless LAN layer 2 mechanism in packet transmission such as IP, and in the predicted wireless LAN network, the terminal Mobile phone network by a terminal corresponding to a plurality of wireless systems such as mobile communication and wireless LAN by transmitting the connection information created thereby to the terminal via the mobile communication network This realizes a seamless handover of packet communication between the (mobile communication network) and the wireless LAN.

  In order to solve the above-described conventional problems, the wireless network control device of the present invention includes mobile communication out of information input from a WLAN relay device that controls connection of one or more wireless LAN access (Local Area Network) networks. A terminal capable of communicating with the network and the wireless LAN network has a configuration for outputting connection information required when the terminal communicates with the wireless LAN network, between the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN. This realizes a handover without interruption of packet communication.

  The mobile communication network control device according to the present invention includes a communication control unit that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network, a location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of the mobile terminal, and the location information based on the location information. A destination prediction unit that predicts a wireless network that cooperates with a mobile communication network that is a destination of a mobile terminal, and a wireless network control device that controls communication with the mobile terminal in the wireless network predicted by the destination prediction unit And connection information transmitting means for transmitting connection information for connecting the mobile terminal to the wireless network.

  When the mobile terminal moves to the wireless network by transmitting the connection information of the mobile terminal to the wireless network control device of the wireless network predicted as the movement destination of the mobile terminal by the movement destination prediction unit in this way. It is possible to connect to a wireless network without transmitting connection information again. As a result, when entering the coverage area of the wireless network, the connection information transmission process is omitted, so that the time required for connection can be shortened and smooth handover can be realized. The mobile communication network control device is, for example, a radio control device (RNC) connected to a base station that performs radio communication with a mobile terminal. The wireless network control device is, for example, a WLAN relay device connected to a WLAN access network that performs wireless communication with a mobile terminal.

  The mobile communication network control device of the present invention provides a response indicating completion of connection preparation between the wireless network and the mobile terminal transmitted from the wireless network control device in accordance with the connection information transmitted by the connection information transmitting means. Wireless network information transmitting means may be provided for transmitting the wireless network information to the mobile terminal through a mobile communication network.

  In this way, when a notification of connection completion is received from the wireless network device, the mobile terminal can grasp the wireless network for which connection preparation is completed by transmitting information on the wireless network to the mobile terminal.

  The wireless network device of the present invention is transmitted from a wireless control means for controlling communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network and a mobile communication network control device for controlling communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network linked to the own wireless network. A connection information receiving means for receiving connection information of the mobile terminal to the own wireless network, and a relay for relaying packet communication between the own wireless network and the public packet network in response to reception of the connection information by the connection information receiving means. A tunnel setting means for setting up a tunnel for the mobile terminal, and a response indicating completion of connection preparation to the mobile communication network control device when a tunnel is set by the tunnel setting means. Response transmission means.

  In this way, in response to the reception of the connection information transmitted from the mobile communication network control device, by setting up a tunnel with the relay device for the mobile terminal related to the connection information, the mobile terminal automatically When entering the wireless network, the time for setting up the tunnel can be omitted, and a smooth handover can be realized.

  Further, the radio network control device of the present invention is configured to authenticate whether or not the mobile terminal is registered as a terminal connected to the mobile communication network in response to reception of connection information by the connection information receiving means. The response transmission means may transmit a response when the mobile terminal is authenticated by the authentication means.

  When the mobile terminal enters the local wireless network by authenticating the mobile terminal related to the connection information in response to the reception of the connection information transmitted from the mobile communication network control device in this way. The time for authenticating the mobile terminal can be omitted, and a smooth handover can be realized.

  In addition, the wireless network device of the present invention determines whether a tunnel for the detected mobile terminal is set up with the relay device when the mobile terminal is detected in the own wireless network. And a receivability notification transmission for transmitting a packet receivability notification indicating that the packet can be received to the relay apparatus in response to determination by the determination means that a tunnel for the mobile terminal is set up Means.

  Thus, when a tunnel for a mobile terminal detected in its own wireless network is set up, the relay device transmits a packet reception ready notification to the relay device so that the mobile terminal Know that you can receive. As a result, the relay apparatus can control the packet addressed to the mobile terminal transmitted from the public packet network to be transmitted to the radio network control apparatus.

  The wireless communication system of the present invention includes a mobile communication network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network, and a wireless network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network linked to the mobile communication network. The mobile communication network control device comprises: location information acquisition means for acquiring location information of the mobile terminal; and destination prediction means for predicting a wireless network that is the destination of the mobile terminal based on the location information And connection information transmission means for transmitting connection information for connecting the mobile terminal to the wireless network to a wireless network control device of the wireless network predicted by the movement destination prediction means, the wireless network control The apparatus includes a connection information receiving means for receiving the connection information transmitted from the mobile communication network control apparatus, and the connection information receiving unit. In response to receiving the connection information by means between the relay apparatus for relaying a packet communication with the radio network and a public packet network, and a tunnel configuration unit for performing tunnel setting for the mobile terminal.

  With this configuration, the mobile communication network control device transmits the connection information of the mobile terminal in the mobile communication network to another radio network control device in advance according to the predicted destination of the mobile terminal, and the radio network control device Sets up a tunnel for the mobile terminal based on the connection information received by. Thereby, when the mobile terminal actually enters the wireless network, the process of transmitting the connection information from the mobile terminal to the wireless network control apparatus can be omitted, and a smooth handover can be realized.

  A communication method of a wireless communication system according to the present invention includes a mobile communication network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network, and a wireless network that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network linked to the mobile communication network. A communication method of a wireless communication system comprising a control device, wherein the mobile communication network control device acquires location information of the mobile terminal, and the movement of the mobile terminal based on the location information A destination prediction step for predicting a destination wireless network, and connection information for connecting the mobile terminal to the wireless network is transmitted to the wireless network control device of the wireless network predicted in the destination prediction step. A connection information transmission step, and the wireless network control device is transmitted from the mobile communication network control device. A connection information reception step for receiving connection information, and a relay device that relays packet communication between the own wireless network and the public packet network in response to reception of the connection information in the connection information reception step. A tunnel setting step for setting a tunnel for the purpose.

  With this configuration, similarly to the wireless communication system of the present invention, when the mobile terminal moves from the mobile communication network to the wireless network, the process of transmitting connection information from the mobile terminal to the wireless network control device can be omitted, and the smooth hand Over can be realized.

  The wireless network control device of the present invention is a wireless network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network, and stores the address information of the mobile communication network control device of the mobile communication network linked to the own wireless network An information storage means; a connection request receiving means for receiving a connection request for the own wireless network transmitted from the mobile terminal; and connecting the mobile terminal to the own wireless network in response to reception of the connection request by the connection request receiving means And radio control means for notifying the mobile terminal of address information of the mobile communication network control device stored in the address information storage means.

  In this way, when a connection request is received from a mobile terminal that can also use the mobile communication network, the address information of the mobile communication network control device linked to the own wireless network is transmitted to the mobile terminal that is the source of the connection request. As a result, the mobile terminal can grasp the address of the mobile communication network control device and can access the mobile communication network control device from the wireless network.

  In the radio network control device of the present invention, the radio control device may transmit a packet addressed to the mobile communication network control device transmitted from the mobile terminal to the mobile communication network control device.

  By transmitting packets addressed to the mobile communication network control device from the wireless network control device to the mobile communication network control device in this way, even when the mobile terminal is not in the coverage area of the mobile communication network, The mobile communication network can be accessed.

  A radio communication system of the present invention includes a mobile communication network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network, and a radio network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a radio network linked to the mobile communication network. The wireless network control device comprises: address information storage means storing address information of a mobile communication network control device of a mobile communication network linked to the own wireless network; and a connection request for the own wireless network transmitted from the mobile terminal. A connection request receiving means for receiving the mobile terminal, and in response to reception of a connection request by the connection request receiving means, the mobile terminal is connected to the own wireless network and the mobile communication network control device stored in the address information storage means Wireless control means for notifying the mobile terminal of address information.

  In this way, when a connection request is transmitted from a mobile terminal capable of communication via a mobile communication network to the wireless network control device, the wireless network control device cooperates with the wireless network to the mobile terminal that is the transmission source of the connection request. By transmitting the address information of the mobile communication network control device, the mobile terminal can grasp the address of the mobile communication network control device and can access the mobile communication network control device from the wireless network.

  In the wireless communication system of the present invention, the mobile terminal sends a registration request for requesting registration to the mobile communication network using the address information of the mobile communication network control device notified from the wireless network control device. You may transmit to the said mobile communication network control apparatus via a radio network control apparatus.

  As a result, the mobile terminal connected to the wireless network can be registered in the mobile communication network control device, and when the mobile terminal actually enters the mobile communication network, the process of registering the mobile terminal in the mobile communication network is omitted. And smooth handover can be realized.

  In the wireless communication system of the present invention, when the mobile communication network control device detects the mobile terminal in the mobile communication network, the detected mobile terminal is a terminal registered in the mobile communication network. The packet can be received by a relay device that relays packet communication with the public packet network according to the determination means for determining whether or not the detected mobile terminal is registered in the mobile communication network. Receivable notification transmission means for transmitting a packet receivable notification indicating the presence of the packet may be provided.

  In this way, when the mobile terminal detected in the mobile communication network is already registered in the mobile communication network, the mobile terminal passes through the mobile communication network by transmitting a packet reception ready notification to the relay device. To know that the packet can be received. Thereby, the relay apparatus can be controlled to transmit the packet addressed to the mobile terminal transmitted from the public packet network to the mobile communication network.

  A communication method of a wireless communication system according to the present invention includes a mobile communication network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network, and a wireless network that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network linked to the mobile communication network. A communication method of a wireless communication system comprising a control device, comprising: a connection request receiving step for receiving a connection request to the own wireless network transmitted from the mobile terminal; and receiving a connection request in the connection request receiving step A connection step for connecting the mobile terminal to the own radio network, and address information from address information storage means in which the radio network controller stores address information of the mobile communication network controller of the mobile communication network linked to the own radio network. The address for notifying the mobile terminal of the read address information. And an information notification step.

  With this configuration, as with the wireless communication system of the present invention, the mobile terminal can grasp the address of the mobile communication network control device and can access the mobile communication network control device from the wireless network. Various configurations of the wireless communication system of the present invention can also be applied to the communication method of the present invention.

  According to the wireless network control device of the present invention, it is possible for a terminal to establish a connection and perform communication at an early stage after entering a wireless LAN network area.

  Furthermore, it becomes possible to select a cell using the network state, and it is possible for a terminal to establish a connection and perform communication earlier after entering a wireless LAN area. It is possible to reduce unnecessary communication and effectively use mobile communication network resources, and to reduce unnecessary communication and effectively use mobile communication network resources when wireless LAN communication is disconnected. When the main communication is disconnected, the resources of the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN used for the prediction information can be saved, and the mobile communication network can be wirelessly connected when the communication on the mobile communication network side is disconnected. It becomes possible to effectively use the resources of the mobile communication network by separating from the LAN communication.

  Hereinafter, a wireless communication system of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The mobile communication network is premised on the W-CDMA system and the WLAN network is based on IEEE 802.11 (a / b / g), but can be applied to other mobile communication systems and WLAN systems.

(Embodiment 1)
In the present embodiment, the switching time is shortened by performing authentication processing and connection setting processing before a terminal performing packet communication moves from a mobile communication network to a wireless local area network (WLAN) area. To do.

  Specifically, the wireless network control device uses the terminal's telephone number (IMSI: International Mobile Subscriber Identity) to set connection information in the WLAN instead of the terminal, and the terminal is required. The connection information is acquired via the WLAN relay device and transmitted to the terminal.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of a wireless communication system in the first embodiment.

  The public packet network 112 is a packet network located in the public. The Internet is one of the public packet networks 112.

  The terminal 101 has both mobile communication network and wireless LAN packet access means. In the 3GPP standard, this corresponds to a UE (User Equipment).

  In the mobile communication network, the first base station apparatus 102a and the second base station apparatus 102b mutually convert the radio signal from the terminal 101 into a wired signal and transmit it. It corresponds to Node B in the 3GPP standard. The first base station apparatus 102a covers the cell M1, and the second base station apparatus 102b covers the cell M2.

  The first WLAN access network 103a and the second WLAN access network 103b are packet networks based on IP (Internet Protocol) and the like, include an access point for connecting to the terminal 101, and convert wireless LAN wireless signals into packet signals on the wired network. Convert. It is also assumed that an address assignment operation is performed as a DNS server in the WLAN access network 103. In the 3GPP standard, it corresponds to WLAN AN (Access Network). The first WLAN access network 103a covers the cell L1, and the second WLAN access network 103b covers the cell L2. Both are collectively referred to as a WLAN access network 103.

  The wireless network control device 104 is connected to the base station device 102 via IP, and performs wireless terminal control and transmission of control data and user data in the mobile communication network. It corresponds to 3GPP standard RNC (Radio Network Controller). The effect of the present invention can be obtained even when the connection with the base station apparatus 102 is ATM.

  The first WLAN relay device 105a and the second WLAN relay device 105b are respectively connected to the first WLAN access network 103a and the second WLAN access network 103b, and control data and user data of the wireless LAN between the WLAN access network 103 connected to each of them. Is transmitted. The 3GPP standard corresponds to WAG (Wireless Access Gateway). Both are collectively referred to as a WLAN access network 103.

  The packet control device 106 is connected to the radio network control device 104, and performs packet transmission control processing in the mobile communication network and state management of the terminal 101 related to packet transmission. It is assumed that the connection of the radio network controller 104 uses IP. The 3GPP standard corresponds to SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node).

  The mobile network packet relay device 107 is connected to the WLAN access network 103 via IP, and relays packet data from the mobile communication network to the Internet. The 3GPP standard corresponds to GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node). Here, one mobile network packet relay device 107 is arranged for each APN (Access Point Name) that is a domain of the terminal 101.

  The packet data relay device 108 is connected to the mobile network packet relay device 107 and the first WLAN relay device 105a, and relays data from both to the public packet network 112. Similar to the mobile network packet relay apparatus 107, it corresponds to the APN. The connection relationship between the packet data relay device 108 and the WLAN relay device 105 is assumed to be a one-to-many relationship.

  The authentication relay apparatus 109 is connected to the WLAN relay apparatus 105, and receives authentication data from the terminal 101 via the WLAN relay apparatus 105 when the terminal 101 enters the wireless LAN cover area. It corresponds to AAA Proxy in 3GPP standard.

  The authentication server 110 is connected to the authentication relay device 109 and receives authentication data from the terminal 101 via the authentication relay device 109. The 3GPP standard corresponds to AAA Server.

  The user information storage device 111 is connected to the packet control device 106, the mobile network packet relay device 107, and the authentication server 110. The user information storage device 111 stores service information that the user has contracted with a communication carrier of a mobile communication network or a wireless LAN network. Yes. The public packet network 112 is a packet network located in the public. The Internet is one of the public packet networks 112.

  The opposite node 114 is a partner with which the terminal 101 performs packet communication. For example, a server or the like arranged on the Internet is included in the opposite node 114.

  In addition, a mobile communication network and a wireless LAN that are linked in this system are defined. The mobile communication network refers to a network including the mobile network packet relay device 107, the packet control device 106, the radio network control device 104, and the base station device 102. The wireless LAN refers to a network including the packet data relay device 108, the WLAN relay device 105, and the WLAN access network 103.

  The terminal 101b is the terminal 101a that has moved to the cell L1. Hereinafter, the terminals 101a and 101b are collectively referred to as the terminal 101.

  In this embodiment, the mobile network packet relay device 107 and the packet data relay device 108 are connected, the packet data relay device 108 performs routing with the packet network instead of the home agent, and the wireless network control device 104. And the WLAN relay device 105 are connected to each other to exchange authentication information and control information.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration diagram of the radio network controller 104 in the first embodiment. 2, the terminal control unit 201 has a function of managing and controlling the wireless communication state and the like of the terminal 101 such as the RRC of TS25.331. The terminal information management unit 202 has a function of maintaining and managing the wireless communication state of the terminal 101 existing in the area under the RRC of TS25.331, the cell under the control of the wireless network control device 104, or the WLAN access network 103. Have.

  The cell location management unit 203 manages network-side equipment other than the terminal 101 and the state of the network as information for performing communication control of the terminal 101. Specific information includes performance such as the position of the WLAN access network 103 and the base station apparatus 102, transmission capability, accommodation capability, output, or cover radius.

  The RNC connection setting unit 204 sets a data transmission path between the packet control device 106, the base station device 102, and the WLAN relay device 105. Connection control using RANAP, NBAP, etc. in 3GPP is performed. Base station communication means 205 is means for communicating with base station apparatus 102. The UTRAN internal transport protocol, control plane, and user plane transmission processing are included in the base station communication means 205.

  The WAG communication unit 206 communicates authentication / control information with the WLAN relay device 105. The SGSN communication unit 207 is a unit that encapsulates the user's IP packet and transmits it to the packet control device 106. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the IP protocol or GTP is used.

  FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the WLAN relay device 105 according to the first embodiment. In the WLAN relay device 105, the WAG connection setting unit 301 performs connection settings between the terminal 101 and the packet data relay device 108 in the wireless LAN under the control of the WLAN relay device 105. The terminal management unit 302 manages all terminals 101 in the wireless LAN area under the WLAN relay device 105. The WLAN communication unit 303 communicates with the WLAN access network 103 via IP.

  The RNC communication unit 304 communicates with the radio network controller 104 via IP. The PDG communication unit 305 communicates with the packet data relay apparatus 108 via IP.

  The operation of the interwork system in the first embodiment will be described below. First, the initial setting will be described. The user information storage device 111 stores user data in the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN. User data includes, for example, a user profile. The terminal IDs and E.E. 164 based phone number), whether interworking or tunneling is allowed, maximum session connection time, billing method (prepaid, postpaid, both), billing server ID or address, list of authenticated W-APNs, Whether or not local connection is possible, whether or not roaming is possible, and information on a password, a SIM card, and a UIM card can be specified.

  When the terminal 101 accesses the mobile communication network or the wireless LAN, the terminal 101 accesses the user information storage device 111 via the first WLAN relay device 105a, the authentication relay device 109, and the authentication server 110, and acquires necessary information. get. The terminal 101 also holds a user profile.

  In addition, the radio network controller 104 stores information on the cells under the radio network controller 104 itself and the WLAN access network 103 around them in the cell location management unit 203. FIG. 4 shows an example of a method for realizing the cell location management unit 203. The cell location management means 203 includes the ID of the base station apparatus 102 that communicates in the cell, the cell location 403, the cell radius 404, and the terminals that can be accommodated (3G, types of terminals 101 that can be accommodated, such as wireless LAN). In the case of the connection information shown, the adjacent cell 406, and the wireless LAN cell, the WLAN relay device 105 that is the communication partner of the wireless network control device 104 is stored as the WAG 407.

  The accommodable terminal type 402 indicates the type of terminal that can be accommodated in the cell, UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System), or 802.11. In the field of position 403, latitude indicated by a value starting from N or S and longitude starting from E or W are used. The connection information 404 is information for accessing the base station apparatus 102 or the wireless LAN access network 103 that covers the cell. In the present embodiment, a scrambling code is designated for UMTS, and an SSID and WEP key in the 802.11 standard are designated for a wireless LAN.

  In addition, in order to cope with the case where the IEEE802.11i standard or the 802.1x standard is used, the field indicating the authentication method and the connection method in the connection information, the movement speed, movement direction, and movement acceleration fields of the terminal 101 for position estimation, An identifier indicating an encryption method for supporting encryption, a field for storing information of a certificate or encryption key required for encryption, and a tunneling protocol for supporting a case where a tunnel other than the IPinIP method is used at the time of wireless LAN connection Fields for storing identifiers to be used and information used for tunnel settings (MPLS labels when MPLS is used for tunnels), identifiers at the time of multiplexing, QoS or SLA (Service Level Agreement) contents, packet or frame sequence numbers Odor when provided separately However, the effects of the present embodiment can be obtained.

  The radio network controller 104 predicts the destination cell of the terminal 101a based on the information included in the cell location management unit 203 and the cell location of the terminal 101a. The location of the WLAN access network 103 is collected in advance by the WLAN relay device 105, and the location of the WLAN access network 103 and the cell ID of the WLAN access network 103 collected by the WLAN relay device 105 in response to an inquiry from the wireless network control device 104. It is also possible to construct the data of the cell location management means 203 by responding together.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the target of handover processing between the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN is limited to the terminal 101 having a plurality of types of wireless interfaces such as the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN. It is also possible to have a means for judging the terminal 101 having the terminal 101 and other terminals 101.

  For example, an identifier such as IMSI that identifies the terminal 101 having a plurality of wireless interfaces is stored in the wireless network control device 104, and when a new terminal 101 enters or connects, the plurality of wireless interfaces in which the identifier of the terminal 101 is already stored A method for determining whether or not the identifier matches the identifier of the terminal 101 having a terminal, and when the terminal 101 enters the cell, the user information storage device 111 or the terminal 101 itself is inquired about the wireless interface of the terminal 101, and the wireless interface The method of confirming the number of is mentioned. In that case, the cell registration process or the following handover process between different networks may be executed only for the terminal 101 having a plurality of radio interfaces.

  In the present embodiment, it is assumed that terminal 101 is first packet-connected via a mobile communication network. FIG. 5 shows a protocol stack related to user data at this time. When the portion corresponding to the mobile communication network of the terminal 101 is used, the packet communication method between the terminal 101 and the mobile network packet relay device 107 is the same as the packet communication method defined between the UE and the GGSN in 3GPP TS 23.060. is there. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the packet data relay device 108 is arranged between the mobile network packet relay device 107 and the public packet network 112, and the packet data relay device 108 assigns the remote IP address of the terminal 101.

  Therefore, the remote IP address of the terminal 101 is the same both when the terminal 101 is located in the cell of the mobile communication network and when it is located in the cell of the wireless LAN.

  Even when the node that connects to the public packet network 112 is the mobile network packet relay device 107 or the node that assigns the remote IP address is the mobile network packet relay device 107, the remote of the terminal 101 When the IP address is common between the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN, the same effect as in the present embodiment can be obtained. When a remote IP address different from the mobile communication network is assigned on the wireless LAN, the switching is notified to the upper node and the node to which the remote IP address is assigned when the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN are switched. The effect of the present invention can be obtained by changing the route of the packet including the user data according to the notification.

  Further, FIG. 6 shows information fields held by the terminal 101 at this time. The IMSI 601 is an ID that uniquely determines the terminal 101 and is ID1. W-APN is the access point name of this interwork system, iw. operator. com. The user ID is a character string that uniquely identifies a user using W-APN as a domain name, and ID1 @ iw. operator. com. The user profile 604 is the same as the user profile included in the user information storage device 111. The wireless LAN MAC 605 is a MAC address of a wireless LAN interface. If the terminal 101 has a plurality of wireless LAN interfaces, a plurality of addresses may be used.

  Active Set 606 and quasi-Active Set 607 are identifiers indicating cells of a mobile communication network or a wireless LAN with which the terminal 101 is communicating, and are also referred to as a communicating cell set. On the other hand, the quasi-active set 607 is an identifier indicating a cell in which the terminal 101 is estimated to move in the future, and is also called a prediction target cell set. In this state (a), only the packet connection in the cell M1 is performed, so that the active set 606 is M1, and the quasi-active set 607 is “none”. The remote IP address 608 is an IP address used when the terminal 101 communicates with the opposite node 114, and has a value of 10.2.2.2.

  The local IP address 609 is an IP address used for communication with the wireless LAN access network 103 only when the wireless LAN is used. In the states (b) to (d), the local IP address 609 is 10.2.1.5 for the cell L1. The cell L2 is 10.2.2.5.

  The PDG transport is a connection used when creating a tunnel with the PDG and is composed of a set of an IP address and a port number. In states (b) to (d), the IP address is set to 10.1.1.1 and the port number is set to 10001.

  Hereinafter, a sequence in which the radio network controller 104 estimates a cell that may be the destination of the terminal 101 when the terminal 101a is connected to the packet, and a spare connection is set for the estimated cell is shown in FIG. While explaining.

  First, the radio network controller 104 stores data corresponding to the user ID of the terminal 101 a in the terminal information management unit 202. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the user ID includes a symbol string indicating a network to which the terminal 101a is connected and a character string used for identifying a user in the network. Specifically, it is assumed that the IMSI and a W-APN (Wireless Access Point Name) indicating a network are connected as a domain name after @ like a mail address.

  In 3GPP TS 23.003, a root NAI (Network Access Identifier, NAI is defined by IETF RFC2486) corresponding to a user ID is used as an authentication method in a wireless LAN network, and MNC (Mobile Network Code) and MCC (Mobile Network Code) included in IMSI. (Country Code). <One digit representing the authentication method> <MSIN (Mobile Subscriber Identification Number, subscriber telephone number)> @ wlan. mnc <MNC>. mcc <MCC>. <Operator domain name>. For example, when the IMSI is 23415099999999999 and EAP-AKA is used as the authentication method, MCC = 234, MNC = 150, MSIN = 99999999999), and EAP-AKA is represented by the numeral 0. Therefore, 0999999999 @ wlan. mnc150. mcc234. operator. com. Even when root NAI is used as the user ID, it can be easily analogized that the same effect as the present embodiment can be realized.

  In the base station apparatus 102, the IMSI can be acquired by paging performed at the time of packet connection, but the W-APN cannot be acquired. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the first base station apparatus 102a transmits the W-A to the terminal 101a. Get APN. This sequence is unnecessary when the radio network controller 104 has already acquired the W-APN of the terminal 101.

  For example, if W-APN is stored in RRC Connection Request at the time of RRC connection setup in packet connection or Initial Direct Transfer of NAS (Non Access Structure), W-APN acquisition request 701 and W-APN acquisition response 702 Is no longer needed. Even if the user ID is directly acquired, the effect of the present embodiment can be obtained.

  In the W-APN acquisition request 701, the radio network controller 104 outputs a request signal for acquiring the W-APN that is the domain name portion of the user ID from the terminal 101.

  The information field of the terminal 101 before the W-APN acquisition request 701 is the state (a) in FIG. 6, the information field held by the wireless network control device 104 to be described later is the state (a) in FIG. 8, and the wireless LAN relay device The information field 105 holds the state shown in the state (a) of FIG.

  At this time, the following processing is performed inside the radio network controller 104. When packet connection or measurement information, or when the terminal 101 is measuring the position, information related to prediction such as the position / speed information of the terminal 101 is input from the terminal 101a to the radio network controller 104. In addition, the wireless network control device 104 starts the estimation / registration processing of the destination of the terminal 101. Inside the radio network controller 104, the terminal controller 201 detects a trigger for starting this process.

  Initially, in the terminal information management means 202 of the radio network controller 104, only the portion related to the mobile communication network is set for the terminal 101a. This is shown in state (a) of FIG. In the state (a) of FIG. 8, ID1 is set as the IMSI of the terminal 101a, the cell ID M1 is set as the Active Set, and 10.2.2.2 is set as the remote IP address of the terminal 101a. Other fields are not set.

  The terminal control unit 201 tries to acquire the W-APN, the user profile, and the MAC address of the wireless LAN from the terminal 101a. Therefore, a W-APN acquisition request 701 is created using IMSI. Further, the request is output to the terminal 101a using the base station communication means 205.

  In the W-APN acquisition response 702, the terminal 101a receives iw., Which is the W-APN used by the terminal 101a. operator. net, UP1 as the user profile and 00: 0E: 36: 4C: 9E: 38 as the MAC address of the wireless LAN are notified to the wireless network control device 104. In the wireless network control device 104, the terminal control unit 201 analyzes the information of the W-APN acquisition response 702, and extracts the W-APN (iw.operator.net), the user profile (UP1), and the MAC address of the wireless LAN. Further, the user ID is created by connecting IMSI and W-APN using @, and stored in the terminal information management means 202 together with the extracted information. In this case, the user ID is ID1 @ iw. operator. net.

  In the cell selection process 703, when the terminal 101a is connected, the radio network controller 104 connects when the terminal 101a moves depending on the position of the base station apparatus 102 to which the terminal 101a is connected and the state of the first WLAN access network 103a. The previous WLAN access network 103 is selected based on at least one of network conditions A to D.

  The network condition A is the WLAN access network 103 in which the distance between the position and the cover area of the WLAN access network 103 is a certain value or less. There are the following methods for acquiring or estimating the position in the radio network controller 104, and any of them may be used.

  The acquisition position a is a position measured by the terminal 101a itself using a device such as GPS, and the acquisition position b is in the vicinity of the terminal 101a, and another terminal 101ab having a position measurement / notification function is connected to Bluetooth or This is a position where the terminal 101a is detected and notified using secondary radio such as UWB (Ultra Wide Band), and the estimation method c is a change in radio field intensity of a channel between one or a plurality of base station apparatuses 102 and the terminal 101. This is an estimation method using quantities.

  The network condition B is the WLAN access network 103 in which the moving direction of the terminal 101a is toward the cover area, and the time calculated from the moving speed is a predetermined value or less.

  The network condition C is the WLAN access network 103 in which a user of the terminal 101a has a contract for providing an interwork service with an operator of the mobile communication network.

  The network condition D is a WLAN access network 103 provided by a wireless LAN connection service provider with which the user of the terminal 101a has a contract relationship or another provider who has a roaming contract with the provider.

  The network condition E is the WLAN access network 103 with a sufficient capacity. Here, the capacity includes the capacity on the wireless section of the WLAN access network 103, the capacity of the wireless access network represented by the number of terminals, and the hardware and software signal processing capacity of the entire access points in the WLAN access network 103. It is determined by the line capacity between the WLAN access network 103 and the WLAN relay device 105, protocol processing capability, routing capability, and operator policy.

  Further, the capacity of the WLAN access network 103 under the WLAN relay device 105 is notified from the WLAN relay device 105 to the wireless network control device 104 at regular intervals, or from the wireless network control device 104 to the WLAN relay device 105. Acquired by inquiring.

  Note that one or more connection destinations may be selected. The priority of the selection destination is also determined based on any one of the network conditions A to E.

  In the present embodiment, in order to simplify the description, a neighboring cell of Active Set indicating a connected cell is assumed to be a quasi-Active Set. Further, since the terminal 101a is located in the cell M1 under the first base station apparatus 102a, the Active Set is only M1. Therefore, the quasi-active set is the cells M2, L1, and L2 adjacent to M1.

  When the cell selection is completed, in the wireless LAN preliminary setting request 704, the wireless network control device 104 transfers the user ID and user profile of the terminal 101a to the first WLAN relay device 105a. The user ID is a symbol string that uniquely identifies the user. For example, in 3GPP, a NAI created from the user's IMSI and W-APN can be used. NAI is ID1 @ iw. operator. Like net, W-APN is connected by @.

  The terminal state management unit 201 of the wireless network control device 104 creates a user profile from the user ID. Since the cell L1 is under the control of the first WLAN relay device 105a and the cell L2 is under the control of the second WLAN relay device 105b, the wireless network control device 104 performs transfer to both, but since the processing method is the same, hereinafter the first WLAN relay device Only 105a will be described.

  Since cell M2 belongs to the same radio network controller 104, cell ID M2 is immediately added to the quasi-active set of terminal 101a, and M2 is added to active set on terminal 101 side by Active Set update 716 described later. to add.

  In the first WLAN relay device 105a, when the wireless LAN preliminary setting request 704 is input, the WAG connection setting unit 301 registers the data of the terminal 101a in the terminal management unit 302.

  FIG. 9A shows a stored information field as an example of the terminal management unit 302 of the first WLAN relay device 105a. The terminal management unit 302 manages the Active Set and the quasi-Active Set of the terminal 101 for each user ID.

  For the user ID 901 of the terminal 101a, the user profile 902, Serving RNC (radio network control device that controls the terminal 101) ID903, the MAC address 904 of the wireless LAN of the terminal 101, Active Set 905, Semi-Active Set 906, Remote of the terminal 101a One set of IP addresses 907 corresponds.

  The terminal 101a may perform communication simultaneously with a plurality of wireless LAN access networks 103 under the same first WLAN relay device 105a. In this embodiment, a WLAN transport, which is a connection serving as a transport, is established for each wireless LAN access network 103 at this time, and a pair of an IP address and a port is assigned to each. Accordingly, a local IP address 908, a transport IP layer IP address and port 909 with the packet data relay device 108, and a transport IP layer IP address and port pair 910 with the wireless LAN access network 103 are combined into one user ID. There is a possibility of multiple assignments. If the WLAN relay device and the WLAN wireless LAN access network have a one-to-one correspondence, the WLAN transport may not be provided.

  When connection information (context) other than the local IP address and port number is required for establishing a communication connection by performing encryption or compression in wireless LAN communication by the terminal 101, the information is stored in the terminal management means. By storing in 302 and transmitting together with the local IP address in the present embodiment, the same effect as in the present embodiment can be obtained.

  In the state (a) of FIG. 9, since the setting in the wireless LAN is not yet completed, the local IP address 908, the PDG transport 909, and the WLAN transport 910 are “not set”. The Serving RNC 903 that controls the terminal 101a is the wireless network control device 104 that has output the wireless LAN preliminary setting request 704. Hereinafter, the ID of the radio network controller 104 is R1.

  When the wireless LAN preliminary setting request 704 is input, the first WLAN relay device 105a authenticates the mobile communication network using the user profile therein. In this authentication process, the user of the terminal 101a is confirmed by the user information storage device 111 through the authentication relay device 109 and the authentication server 110 to be a user of the mobile communication network. At this time, the following messages are exchanged between the components.

  A WAG authentication request 705 and a WAG authentication response 709 between the first WLAN relay device 105a and the authentication relay device 109. In 3GPP, EAP / Request and EAP / Success defined in TS23.234 are used.

  Relay authentication request 706 and relay authentication response 708 between the authentication relay device 109 and the authentication server 110. In the 3GPP standard, the authentication relay device 109 only relays a message and is similar to the WAG authentication request 703 and the WAG authentication response 708. EAP / Request and EAP / Success defined in TS23.234 are used.

  Authentication acquisition processing 707 between the authentication server 110 and the user information storage device 111. In 3GPP, as defined in TS23.234, the subscriber data in the user information storage device 111 is stored when the authentication server 110 does not exist. get. Also, the authentication server 110 confirms from the user information storage device 111 that the user of the terminal 101a can use the wireless LAN.

  Inside the first WLAN relay device 105a, the WAG connection setting unit 301 obtains information necessary for authentication such as a SIM / UIM card, a password, and a session key from the user profile from the data of the terminal 101a of the terminal management unit 302, as necessary. Extract and store WAG authentication request 705.

  By sending and receiving the above message, in the first WLAN relay device 105a, the terminal management unit 302 confirms that the terminal 101a can use the service of the mobile communication network.

  Next, when the terminal 101a moves to the wireless LAN area, the first WLAN relay device 105a sets the necessary communication path from the packet data relay device 108 to the first WLAN access network 103a and creates connection information. To do. IP-based tunnels are created between the packet data relay device 108 and the first WLAN relay device 105a, and between the first WLAN relay device 105a and the terminal 101a.

  The necessity of creating a tunnel is defined in TS23.234. As the tunnel, in addition to IP-in-IP assumed in the first embodiment, MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching), GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation), IPsec, L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol), PPPoE (Point-To-To (Point) -Point Protocol over Ethernet (registered trademark). The effect of this embodiment can be obtained regardless of which is used.

  FIG. 10 shows the tunnel creation processing in the present embodiment in the form of a protocol stack. In order for the terminal 101a to communicate in the wireless LAN area, both the packet data relay apparatus 108 and the terminal 101a need a tunnel and a remote IP layer. However, when the terminal 101a is not located in the wireless LAN area, the first WLAN relay device 105a once creates a tunnel with the packet data relay device 108 instead of the terminal 101a. This is the remote IP layer and tunnel (tunneling in FIG. 10) 1001 of the first WLAN relay device 105a. Thereafter, connection information necessary for setting these tunnels is transmitted to the terminal 101a via the mobile communication network.

  For setting the tunnel, connection information of the terminal 101a is required. In this embodiment, since IP-in-IP is assumed as the tunneling method, the local IP address used when the terminal 101a moves to the cell L2 and necessary for tunnel setting is the connection information. The connection information transmission operation is 1002, which makes it possible to acquire setting information obtained when the terminal 101a directly performs tunnel setting.

  In the tunnel creation process, first, the transport IP layer is set in the communication path between the packet data relay device 108 and the first WLAN relay device 105a. In setting the communication path, the local IP addresses and port numbers of the first WLAN relay device 105a and the packet data relay device 108 are required.

  When performing communication settings, the first WLAN relay device 105a needs to acquire a list of connectable visited networks (WLAN access networks 103) and select a connected network according to a user profile. First, the first WLAN relay device 105 a performs wireless LAN IP address acquisition 710. The wireless LAN IP address acquisition 710 receives a plurality of IP addresses of packet data relay apparatuses 108 that can be connected from the WLAN access network 103 having a DNS server function using the W-APN and the visited network domain. In the wireless LAN IP address acquisition 710, the WAG connection setting unit 301 creates and outputs a DNS query using an address in the domain part of the user ID.

  As a result, the DNS server responds to the first WLAN relay device 105a with a list of pairs of local IP addresses of the visited network and the corresponding packet data relay device 108. The WAG connection setting unit 301 refers to the contents of the user profile of the terminal management unit 302 and selects the optimum packet data relay device 108.

  As a selection method of the packet data relay device 108, for example, a method in which the packet data relay device 108 in the home network is given priority over the packet data relay device 108 in the visited network, or the charging rate is stored in the user profile, which is the least expensive. A method for giving priority to a charging network, a method for recording a plurality of packet data relay devices 108 or visited networks in a user profile in the order in which connections are preferred, and selecting a network in order of preference from among them, packet data relay One of the methods is used in which the communication quality or communication capacity of the node such as the device 108 or the WLAN relay device 105 is stored in advance, and the node is selected from those with high quality or those with sufficient communication capacity.

  After selecting the packet data relay apparatus 108, the WAG connection setting unit 301 of the first WLAN relay apparatus 105a outputs a tunnel setting notification 711 to the selected packet data relay apparatus 108. The tunnel setting notification 711 determines the user ID of the terminal 101, the remote IP address, and one port for tunnel setting, and stores the port number together with the IP address of the first WLAN relay device 105a.

  In tunnel setting, the first WLAN relay device 105 a and the packet data relay device 108 exchange filtering information and the like via the authentication relay device 109 in the policy exchange 712. The packet data relay device 108 to which the tunnel setting notification 711 has been input performs an authentication completion confirmation 713 to the authentication server 110 in order to confirm that the authentication to the first WLAN access network 103a has already been completed. In this case, since the authentication process related to the terminal 101a has already been performed, the completion of the authentication can be confirmed. These processes are defined in 3GPP TS 23.234.

  In addition, when there are an encryption function and a compression function as a tunnel function, when setting the tunnel, the encryption method, header compression or payload compression method used in the tunnel is required. Information is extracted by policy exchange 712.

  When the packet data relay device 108 selects the port number used for the tunnel, the packet data relay device 108 performs tunnel creation processing 714 for the first WLAN relay device 105a. In the tunnel creation processing 714, information on the tunnel between the packet data relay apparatus 108 and the first WLAN relay apparatus 105a and information for identifying the terminal 101a, for example, a user ID, is transmitted from the packet data relay apparatus 108 to the first WLAN relay apparatus 105a. The device 105a is notified. When the WAG connection setting unit 301 of the first WLAN relay device 105a detects the local IP address of the packet data relay device 108 and the tunnel port number via the PDG communication unit 305, the packet data is transferred to the PDG transport 907 of the terminal management unit 302. The local IP address and port number of the relay device 108 are stored. The state of the terminal management means 302 of the first wireless LAN relay device 105a at this time is shown in the state (b) of FIG.

  When the tunnel setting between the first WLAN relay device 105a and the user information storage device 111 is completed, a process of moving the connection information from the first WLAN relay device 105a to the terminal 101a is performed as in the SIG 1002 of FIG. First, the first WLAN relay device 105 a outputs a tunnel setting notification 715 to the radio network controller 104. In the first WLAN relay device 105a, the WAG connection setting unit 301 receives from the terminal management unit 302 the user ID of the terminal 101a, the wireless LAN connection information, and the local IP address (10.2.1.1.5) assigned by the tunnel setting. Extraction is made, and a tunnel setting notification 715 is created and output to the radio network controller 104 using the RNC communication means 304.

  When the tunnel setting notification 715 is input, the wireless network control apparatus 104 instructs the terminal 101a to set the tunnel for the terminal 101a indicated by the tunnel setting notification 715 by the Active Set update 716 for the terminal 101a, and the quasi-Active Set of the terminal 101a. Add cell L1.

  The Active Set update can be used by adding a part for storing the information of the quasi-Active Set to the Active Set Update in 3GPP TS25.331. The terminal 101a sets a local IP address and a remote IP address in the first WLAN access network 103a area according to the contents of the Active Set update.

  After the tunnel setting notification 715 is input via the WAG communication unit 206, the radio network controller 104 performs the following processing. The RNC connection setting unit 204 detects the completion of the tunnel setting in the wireless LAN based on the tunnel setting notification 715. As a result, since the terminal 101a is ready to communicate immediately after moving to the cell L1, the terminal control unit 201 notifies the terminal information management unit 202 to the local IP acquired by the tunnel setting notification 715 to the local IP address in the wireless LAN. Stores the address (10.2.1.5). In addition, L1 is added to the quasi-active set.

  And in order to notify these information to the terminal 101 side, the local IP address is set to 10.2.1.5, and an Active Set update 716 for adding L1 to the quasi-Active Set is created, and the base station communication means The data is output to the first base station apparatus 102a via 205. This signal is output to the terminal 101a by the first base station apparatus 102a.

  Although not explicitly shown, the radio network controller 104 also adds L2 to the quasi-Active Set when receiving the tunnel setting notification 716 from the second WLAN relay device 105b for the cell L2, and Then, an Active Set update for adding the cell L2 is output. As a result, the Active Set becomes M1, and the quasi-Active Set becomes M2, L1, and L2. At this time, the state of the terminal information management unit 202 of the wireless network control device 104 is shown in the state (b) of FIG.

  Next, processing of each node when the terminal 101a enters the cell L1 and becomes the terminal 101b will be described with reference to FIG. 11 showing a processing sequence. At the time of entering, it is assumed that the radio wave intensity is unstable and unsuitable for communication, and thereafter the radio wave intensity becomes strong and a communication error occurrence rate is lowered to enable stable communication.

  From the cell L1 entry 1101 to the downlink data transmission 1104, immediately after the terminal 101b enters the cell L1, the packet data relay device 108 outputs a packet for the terminal 101b from the public packet network 112 to the first WLAN relay device 105a. Indicates. With this process, when the communication connection between the terminal 101b and the first WLAN access network 103a in the cell L1 is established after the communication is stabilized, the interruption time until the terminal 101b receives the downlink packet is reduced.

  The terminal 101b moves to the cover area of the first WLAN access network 103a (1101). The first WLAN access network 103a detects the radio wave of the terminal 101b. When the radio wave intensity is unstable, the terminal 101b issues an 802.11 standard probe or receives a beacon from the first WLAN access network 103a and outputs an association to the first WLAN access network 103a. It notifies the MAC address of the terminal 101b. Accordingly, there is a case where the terminal 101b outputs an association for the first time when the communication is stable, and a communication start procedure described later and the following procedure are executed almost simultaneously.

  When the wireless LAN area overlaps and communicates with the first WLAN access network 103a different from the first WLAN access network 103a, the first WLAN access network 103a receives the frame being communicated, so that the terminal 101b Can be detected.

  When the first WLAN access network 103a detects the wireless LAN radio wave of the terminal 101b, the wireless LAN radio wave detection notification 1102 is output to the first WLAN relay device 105a. The wireless LAN radio wave detection notification 1102 stores information necessary for wireless LAN connection, such as the MAC address of the terminal 101b.

  When the wireless LAN radio wave detection notification 1102 is input, the first WLAN relay device 105 a outputs a packet receivable notification 1103 regarding the terminal 101 b to the packet data relay device 108. In the first WLAN relay device 105a, when the wireless LAN radio wave detection notification 1102 is detected via the WLAN communication means 303, the terminal management means 302 is searched by the MAC address therein. In the case of the terminal 101b, since the MAC address is already registered, the user ID (802) of the terminal 101b, ID1 @ iw. operator. net can be acquired. In addition, when the retrieved sub-active set of the terminal 101 includes a cell under the control of the first WLAN access network 103a that detected the wireless LAN radio wave, packet transmission from the packet data relay device 108 is started. In this case, since L1 is included in the quasi-active set of the terminal 101b, it is determined to start packet transmission.

  A packet receivability notification 1103 that prompts packet transmission from the packet data relay device 108 is a notification indicating that the terminal 101b has entered the first WLAN access network 103a, and includes the user ID of the terminal 101b. In the first WLAN relay device 105 a, the user ID of the terminal 101 b and the PDG transport 909 acquired from the terminal management unit 302 are specified in the packet reception ready notification 1103, and the packet data relay device 108 is communicated via the PDG communication unit 305. Output.

  Upon reception of the packet receivability notification 1103, the packet data relay apparatus 108 selects a tunnel set from the user ID of the terminal 101b. Then, the packet to the terminal 101b input from the public packet network 112 is output via the tunnel to the first WLAN relay device 105a (downlink data transmission 1104). At this time, since packet transmission has already been performed from the packet data relay device 108 via the mobile network packet relay device 107 and the packet control device 106, the packet data relay device 108 duplicates the received packet to the mobile communication network side. To both the mobile network packet relay device 107 and the first WLAN relay device 105a on the wireless LAN side. At this time, the packet transmitted by the packet transmission is discarded by the first WLAN relay device 105a until a terminal connection notification 1106 described later is input.

  Next, processing until the communication quality between the terminal 101b and the first WLAN access network 103a is stabilized, the terminal 101b starts to output uplink data, and formal communication of the first WLAN access network 103a in the cell L1 is started. (1105 to 1110 in FIG. 11).

  The terminal 101b measures the radio wave strength or communication strength of the wireless LAN, and determines whether or not a stable communication is possible. When the terminal 101b determines that the communication is stable after entering the area of the first WLAN access network 103a, the terminal 101b performs the wireless LAN connection processing 1105 with the first WLAN access network 103a and starts communication using the already acquired local IP address. To do. In the 802.11 standard, connection processing is performed using a Probe or Association procedure.

  When the first WLAN access network 103a detects that the terminal 101b is connected, the first WLAN access network 103a outputs a terminal connection notification 1106, in which information necessary for the wireless LAN connection of the terminal 101b, such as a MAC address, is sent to the first WLAN relay device 105a. Notice. In the first WLAN relay device 105a, the WAG connection setting unit 301 detects the terminal connection notification 1106 via the WLAN communication unit 303, and the user ID corresponding to the MAC address from the terminal management unit 302, the PDG transport and the WLAN transport To get. In this case, the IP address 10.1.1.1 and port 10001 of the PDG transport 909 corresponding to the terminal 101b, and the IP address 10.2.1.1 and port 10001 of the WLAN transport are acquired.

  The WAG connection setting unit 301 further selects a tunnel related to the terminal 101b between the first WLAN relay device 105a and the packet data relay device 108 from information necessary for wireless LAN connection, and the packet data relay device 108 via the tunnel. Is transmitted to the first WLAN access network 103a using the selected tunnel (downlink data transmission 1107).

  Further, the first WLAN relay device 105a outputs the packet from the first WLAN access network 103a to the packet data relay device 108 in order to relay the packet of the terminal 101b to the packet data relay device 108 (uplink data transmission 1108). When the input of this uplink data is detected, the WAG connection setting unit 301 sets the cell L1 of the first WLAN access network 103a as the quasi-active set in the data of the terminal 101b in the terminal management unit 302 within the first WLAN relay device 105a. Change from Active Set to Active Set. The timing of this change may be when the WLAN transmission start notification 1109 is output.

  Next, the first WLAN relay device 105a notifies the wireless network control device 104 that the terminal 101b has started communication through a WLAN transmission start notification 1109. The WAG connection setting unit 301 stores the WLAN transmission start notification 1109 in the user ID of the terminal 101b and outputs it to the radio network controller 104 via the RNC communication unit 304.

  When the WLAN transmission start notification 1109 is input, the radio network controller 104 changes the cell L1 of the terminal 101b from the quasi-active set to the active set. The RNC connection setting unit 204 detects the input of the WLAN transmission start notification 1109 by the WAG communication unit 206 and notifies the terminal control unit 201 of it. The terminal control unit 201 adds L1 to the Active Set of the terminal 101b in the terminal information management unit 202, and deletes L1 from the quasi-Active Set. As a result, the terminal information management unit 202 of the radio network controller 104 is in the state shown in the state (c) of FIG. Then, in order to change the Active Set in the terminal 101b, an Active Set update 1110 that instructs to change the cell L1 of the terminal 101b from the quasi-Active Set to the Active Set is created, and the first set is made via the base station communication unit 205. The data is output to the terminal 101b via the wireless LAN relay device 105a.

  The terminal 101b to which the Active Set update 1110 has been input updates the data of the internal Active Set according to the Active Set update 1110. As a result, as shown in the state (c) of FIG. 6, the Active Set of the terminal 101b becomes the cell M1 and the cell L1, and the data is stored in both the terminal 101b and the radio network controller 104.

  After that, when the communication via the wireless LAN becomes stable and the quality becomes better than the communication via the mobile communication network, the communication with the mobile communication network is stopped, the communication via the wireless LAN is completely switched, and the Active Set To quasi-active set. Also, if there is a cell with a distant cell among the quasi-active sets of the terminal 101b, the quasi-active set is deleted from the quasi-active set (1111 to 1113 in FIG. 11).

  First, after the Active Set update 1110, the terminal 101b measures the radio wave intensity and the communication state (throughput, packet loss rate, error rate BER: Bit Error Rate) with the first WLAN access network 103a, and measures to the radio network controller 104. Notification is made as information 1111. The measurement report of TS25.331 can be used for this. Further, since communication with the WLAN is established, it may be transmitted via the first WLAN access network 103a.

  When the BER of communication via the first WLAN access network 103a is less than the BER via the mobile communication network, or when the communication state of the first WLAN access network 103a is stable and connection with the mobile communication network is unnecessary, wireless The network control device 104 determines to set the Active Set to only the cell L1. Further, in this embodiment, in order to make the adjacent cell with Active Set a quasi-Active Set, the cell M1 is changed from the Active Set to the quasi-Active Set, and the cells M2 and L2 are deleted from the quasi-Active Set.

  First, the terminal control unit 201 deletes the cell L2 from the quasi-active set of the terminal 101b and the active set update 1111 for updating the active set and quasi-active set for the cells M1, M2, and L2, and the second WLAN relay unit 105b. WAG Active Set update 1111 is created.

  The Active Set change process for the cell M1 and the cell M2 of the mobile communication network is performed using an Active Set update 1111 that performs the above process on the cells M1, M2, and L2. When the Active Set update 1111 is input, the terminal 101 changes the cell M1 from the Active Set to the quasi-Active Set, and deletes the cell M2 from the quasi-Active Set. Although this procedure adds a quasi-Active Set to the operation target, it can be executed in the same procedure as the Active Set update defined in 3GPP TS25.331. The output from the radio network controller 104 is output via the base station communication means 205.

  Next, the cell L2 is deleted from the quasi-active set. At this time, a WAG Active Set update 1113 that deletes the cell L2 from the quasi-Active Set of the terminal 101b is output to the second WLAN relay device 105b. The second WLAN relay unit 105b from the radio network controller 104 deletes the cell L2 from the quasi-active set of the terminal 101b of the terminal management unit 302. By this WAG Active Set update 1113, the terminal information management means 202 of the radio network controller 104 is in the state (d) of FIG.

  Further, in this case, since the WLAN access network 103 under the second WLAN relay unit 105b does not enter the Active Set and the quasi-Active Set of the terminal 101b, the data of the terminal 101b itself is also deleted. This is also notified to the radio network controller 104. By this WAG Active Set update 1113, the information held by the terminal 101b is as shown in the state (d) of FIG. Further, the information field of the wireless LAN relay device 105 is in the state (c) of FIG.

  Thereafter, the control plane data for control also passes through the first WLAN access network 103a. An example of a protocol stack for transmission is shown in FIG. Basically, it is similar to the protocol stack for user data, and the terminal 101 side uses the remote IP address and uses the tunnel in the network to transmit RRC data that is a protocol for terminal control.

  In this embodiment, the first WLAN relay device 105a and the wireless network control device 104 are connected, and the connection information / authentication information of the terminal 101a is transmitted / received between them, thereby realizing a handover based on prediction. As shown, even if the connection destination of the wireless network control device 104 in the wireless LAN is the first WLAN access network 103a, the first WLAN access network 103a has the same function as the first WLAN relay device 105a in the present embodiment. The same effect as the embodiment can be obtained.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the packet data relay device 108 of the home network and the packet data relay device 108 of the visited network are logically the same is shown. However, when the two are logically different, the first WLAN relay is performed. An effect similar to that of the present embodiment can be obtained by performing tunnel setting from the device 105a to the packet data relay device 108 twice for the home network and the visited network.

  In the present embodiment, IMSI is used as an ID for specifying terminal 101 and W-APN is acquired from terminal 101. However, U-RNTI (UTRAN Radio) is used as an ID for specifying terminal 101 instead of IMSI. If data used for authentication in a wireless LAN such as IMSI or W-APN is acquired from the terminal 101 using Network Temporary Identifier), the same sequence as in this embodiment is applied. An effect is obtained.

  In the present embodiment, the packet transmission from the packet data relay apparatus 108 via the first WLAN relay apparatus 105a is performed immediately after the terminal 101b is detected in the area of the first WLAN access network 103a of the quasi-active set. However, it is also possible to adopt a method in which the radio network controller 104 determines a change from the quasi-active set to the active set, and the same effect as the present invention can be obtained.

  In this case, when the first WLAN relay device 105a detects the wireless LAN radio wave of the terminal 101b, the wireless network control device 104 is notified of the user ID of the terminal 101b and the radio wave intensity / communication quality data. Accordingly, the radio network controller 104 determines whether or not handover can be performed. When the radio network controller 104 determines that a handover is to be performed, a request to update the contents of the Active Set and the quasi-Active Set is output to the first WLAN relay device 105a, and thereafter the same as in the present embodiment. The terminal 101b from the packet data relay apparatus 108 establishes a connection via the first WLAN relay apparatus 105a.

  When the terminal 101 has position information including at least one of the position, speed, acceleration, and moving direction of the terminal 101 and notifies the wireless network control apparatus 104 of the position information, the wireless network control apparatus 104 Since it is possible to reliably predict the destination cell, packets can be received when the estimated time to reach calculated from the distance or distance and speed between the quasi-active set cell and the terminal 101 is less than a certain value. It is also possible to output a notification from the radio network controller 104 to the packet data relay device 108 to start packet transmission from the packet data relay device 108 to the first WLAN relay device 105a.

  In this embodiment, the IMSI is not used in the first WLAN relay device 105a. However, in addition to the user ID of this embodiment, an identifier such as an IMSI that can uniquely specify the terminal 101 may be used. Similar effects can be obtained.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the destination of the terminal 101 is predicted, the authentication / connection processing in the predicted wireless LAN access network 103 is performed, and packet transmission is performed to the destination cell during or immediately before the movement. By starting the packet communication, it becomes possible to immediately start packet communication when it arrives at the destination wireless LAN access network 103.

  Further, it is possible to reduce signaling traffic associated with the prediction process by performing a process of deleting a cell deviating from the movement target prediction target from the quasi-Active Set when the cell moves.

(Embodiment 2)
The second embodiment shows a process for stopping packet transmission when radio waves via a wireless LAN become weak during communication and communication via the wireless LAN becomes impossible. Since the configuration block diagram of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the first WLAN access network 103a, packet transmission disconnection detection 1301 is performed when there is no frame reception by the MAC address of the terminal 101b for a predetermined time. Specifically, the timer is started after receiving the frame, and the timer is updated every time the frame is received by the MAC address of the terminal 101b. When the timer expires and disconnection is detected, a WLAN disconnection notification 1302 including the MAC address of the terminal 101b is output to the first WLAN relay device 105a to the first WLAN relay device 105a.

  When the WLAN disconnection notification 1302 is input, the first WLAN relay device 105a controls the WLAN communication unit 303 to stop packet transmission to the first WLAN access network 103a (1303). Inside the first WLAN relay device 105a, when the WAG connection setting unit 301 detects the WLAN disconnection notification 1302 via the WAN communication unit 303, the information of the terminal management unit 302 including the MAC address of the terminal 101b therein is searched. In this case, the information of the terminal 101b is found, and the Serving RNC 903 specifying the radio network controller 104 and the PDG transport 909 specifying the packet data relay apparatus 108 are acquired.

  Then, it notifies the packet data relay device 108 and the wireless network control device 104 specified by them that the communication of the cell L1 has been stopped. This stop notification is output to the packet data relay device 108 via the PDG communication unit 305 through the PDG communication unit 305 including a communication impossible notification 1304 including the ID of the cell L1 that is no longer able to communicate with the user ID of the terminal 101b. When the communication failure notification 1304 is input, the packet data relay apparatus 108 stops packet transmission related to the terminal 101b to the first WLAN relay apparatus 105a (transmission stop 1305).

  On the other hand, the WAG connection setting unit 301 outputs a communication stop notification 1306 related to the terminal 101 b to the radio network controller 104 via the RNC communication unit 304. When the communication stop notification 1306 is input, the radio network controller 104 changes the cell L1 from the active set to the quasi-active set. Inside the radio network controller 104, the RNC connection setting unit 204 detects the communication failure notification 1306 via the WAG communication unit 206 and notifies the terminal control unit 201 of it. When the cell of the Active Set remains in the terminal 101b, the terminal control unit 201 performs an Active Set update process in which the cell L1 is a quasi-Active Set for the terminal 101b and the first WLAN relay device 105a.

  Further, when the Active Set of the terminal 101b becomes empty, the packet control apparatus 106 is notified that communication with the terminal 101b is impossible. In this case, since there is only L1 in the Active Set, there are no cells in the Active Set. Accordingly, the terminal control unit 201 outputs a disconnection notification 1307 to the SGSN 206 via the SGSN communication unit 207, indicating that the communication between the terminal 101b and the radio network control apparatus 104 has been disconnected.

  When the disconnection notification 1307 is input, the packet control apparatus 106 confirms the state of the terminal 101b. In this case, since there is no connection between the terminal 101b and the radio network controller 104 other than the radio network controller 104, the packet controller 106 disconnects the packet communication of the terminal 101b (PS Serving Connection Release of 3GPP TS 23.060). I do.

  Also, the packet control device 106 performs GGSN connection information deletion processing 1308 and PDG connection information deletion processing 1309 for deleting context information, which is management information related to the terminal 101b, to the mobile network packet relay device 107 and the packet data relay device 108. . From the packet control device 106 to the mobile network packet relay device 107, 3GPP 23.060 Delete PDP Context Request / Response is used. Accordingly, the mobile network packet relay device 107 and the packet data relay device 108 delete the context information of the terminal 101b in each of them.

  Next, the packet control device 106 disconnects the connection related to the terminal 101b with the wireless network control device 104 (1310). When the connection between the packet control device 106 and the wireless network control device 104 is disconnected, the wireless network control device 104 deletes the context information related to the terminal 101b, so that the first WLAN relay device 105a and the second WLAN relay device 105b Then, WAG connection information deletion processing for deleting an entry related to the terminal 101b of the terminal management unit 302 is performed. In the radio network controller 104, when the RNC connection setting unit 204 detects disconnection with the packet controller 106, the terminal controller 201 is notified that the connection with the packet controller 106 relating to 101b has been disconnected. .

  The terminal control unit 201 deletes information related to the terminal 101b from the terminal information management unit 202. In addition, the WAG connection information deletion process 1311 and the WAG connection information deletion process 1312 are output to the first WLAN relay apparatus 105a and the second WLAN relay apparatus 105b that control the cells L1 and L2 that are the active sets of the terminal 101b. In each WLAN relay device 105, when the WAG connection setting unit 301 detects the WAG connection information deletion process 1310/1311 via the RNC communication unit 304, the information of the terminal 101 b is deleted from the terminal management unit 302. The WAG connection setting unit 301 outputs a response as a result of the WAG connection information deletion processing 1310/1311 to the radio network controller 104 via the RNC communication unit 304.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when the first WLAN access network 103a detects that communication with the terminal 101 is disabled, the packet data relay device 108 and the first WLAN relay device 105a are stopped by stopping packet transmission. Reduce bandwidth usage between the lines. In addition, the wireless network control device 104 is notified of packet transmission stoppage, the Active Set is changed to a quasi-Active Set, the wireless network control device 104 notifies the packet control device 106 that there is no Active Set, and packet control is performed. By disconnecting the connection to the wireless network control device 104 by the device 106, it is possible to suppress the resource consumption of each node of the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN.

(Embodiment 3)
In the present embodiment, a process for registering a terminal in the mobile communication network and the WLAN network and starting communication when the terminal performing packet communication is turned on in the wireless LAN area, and as a result, the terminal is wireless. An example in which the switching time is shortened in the connection setting process when moving from the LAN area to the area of the mobile communication network will be described. The entire block configuration and protocol stack in the present embodiment are the same as those in the first embodiment unless explicitly indicated.

  In the first embodiment, the movement from the mobile communication network to the WLAN is realized when it is assumed that the terminal has already established the connection with the packet control apparatus 106 in the initial state. In the embodiment, since the connection to the wireless LAN is attempted from the beginning, it is assumed that the connection setting of the mobile communication network in the packet control device 106 is not completed as in the first embodiment.

  FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the packet control apparatus 106 according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 14, the SGSN connection setting unit 1401 has a function of controlling the packet control device 106 and performing a connection setting process performed by the SGSN in the 3GPP network. The terminal state management unit 1402 stores the state of the terminal necessary for the control performed by the SGSN connection setting unit 1401. For example, primary PDP information (Primary PDP context) of GPRS defined by 3GPP TS23.060 and TS29.060 is stored. The GPRS control unit 1403 has a function of performing GPRS protocol conversion. The SGSN in 3GPP also performs location management services and the like that are not related to the present embodiment, but the configuration for realizing other services and the like is omitted.

  The RNC communication unit 1404 and the GGSN communication unit 1405 are units for communicating with the radio network controller 104 and the mobile network packet relay unit 107, respectively, and include a protocol stack and network interface software and hardware.

  In the present embodiment, an ATTACH that secures a communication path from the wireless LAN to the packet control apparatus 106 of the mobile communication network, and the terminal 101c registers information for packet connection in the packet control apparatus 106 using the communication path. A processing method will be described.

  FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the terminal 101c. 16 to 21 are field diagrams showing terminal data held by each node. FIGS. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 are a terminal 101c, a radio network controller 104, The terminal information stored in the WLAN relay device 105, the packet control device 106, the mobile network packet relay device 107, and the packet data relay device 108 is shown. In these figures, (a) shows information when the tunnel creation process shown in FIG. 22 is completed, (b) shows information when the WLAN connection setting is completed, and (c) shows information when the switching process from the WLAN to the mobile communication network is completed. . 22 to 24 are diagrams illustrating the operation of the ATTACH process of the terminal 101c in the wireless LAN network.

  FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating processing until the terminal 101c connects to the wireless LAN network and processing in which the terminal 101c performs setting with the wireless network control device 104 via the wireless LAN network.

  In this embodiment, the terminal is not operating before the process is performed, and the terminal 101c is in the stopped state 2201. In the stopped state, the packet control apparatus 106 does not store information related to the terminal 101c, and the state of mobility management (MM, abbreviation for Mobility Management) in GPRS is PMM-detected.

  When the terminal 101c is powered on, the terminal 101c determines whether a wireless LAN or a mobile communication network has been detected (FIG. 15, S1501). When the wireless LAN is detected, the terminal 101c performs a connection process to the wireless LAN (S1502). As a result, the terminal 101c executes processes from the local connection process 2202 to the wireless LAN IP address acquisition 2204 shown in FIG. These are the same as the local connection processing 2802 to the wireless LAN IP address acquisition 2804 in the prior art.

  When the second WLAN access network 103b passes the IP address for local connection to the terminal 101c, the second WLAN access network 103b outputs a terminal connection notification 2205 indicating that the terminal 101c is connected to the second WLAN relay device 105b. This content is the same as the terminal connection notification 1106 in the first embodiment. In the present embodiment, information on a newly connected wireless LAN terminal is output as a terminal connection notification 2205 from the WLAN access network that detected the connection to the corresponding WLAN relay device. The output timing differs depending on whether or not the terminal 101c has acquired an IP address. In the case of the first embodiment, since the terminal 101c has already acquired the IP address of the output source, the terminal connection notification 1106 is output immediately after the wireless LAN connection processing is completed. However, in this embodiment, the IP address of the output source is Since it is undecided, notification is made after passing the IP address.

  When the terminal connection notification 2205 is notified to the second WLAN relay device 105b, the second WLAN relay device 105b refers to the terminal state management unit 1402 and determines whether or not the terminal 101c is a terminal connected to the mobile communication network. To do. Here, since the terminal 101c was in a stopped state before connection to the WLAN, the terminal state management unit 1402 does not store information on the terminal 101c, and is determined as a new terminal that is not connected to the mobile communication network. . The second WLAN relay device 105b outputs the IP address of the radio network controller 104 associated with the first WLAN relay device as the RNC address notification 2206 to the terminal 101c.

  Returning to FIG. 15, the terminal 101c receives the RNC address notification from the second WLAN relay device 105b (S1503). The terminal 101c is in a state where it can always communicate with the wireless network control device 104 while it exists in the mobile communication network, but when it exists in an area of only the wireless LAN, it communicates with the wireless network control device 104 via the wireless LAN. There must be. For this reason, the second WLAN relay device 105b uses the RNC address notification 2206 to notify the IP address of the wireless network control device 104 and the cell number of the WLAN area (such as Cell Identity). Since the terminal 101c exists in the wireless LAN network, the second WLAN relay device 105b does not execute subsequent processing on the wireless LAN network. In the present embodiment, since the terminal 101c is initially in a stopped state, notification of the RNC address is required to realize connection between the wireless network control device 104 and the terminal 101c via the wireless LAN network. However, when moving from the mobile communication network to the wireless LAN network as in the first embodiment, when the terminal 101c exists in the area of the mobile communication network, the wireless network is transmitted from the wireless network control device 104 via the base station device 102. Since the IP address of the control device 104 is notified, the RNC address notification need not be performed.

  Upon receiving the IP address of the wireless network control device 104, the terminal 101c performs a tunnel creation process with the packet data relay device 108 (S1504). Thereby, the tunnel setting notification 711 to tunnel creation 714 shown in FIG. 22 are performed. These processes are the same as the processes from the tunnel creation request 1605 to the tunnel creation 1608 in the prior art.

  Returning to FIG. 15, when the tunnel creation processing is completed, the terminal 101c determines whether or not the IP address of the radio network controller 104 is present (S1505). In this embodiment, since the terminal 101c holds an IP address, a UTRAN setting operation is performed by establishing an RRC connection (S1506).

  With reference to FIG. 22, the sequence of RRC connection establishment will be described. First, the terminal 101c requests the RRC connection request notification 2211 to the radio network controller 104 for RRC connection via the wireless LAN network. This request corresponds to RRC CONNECTION REQUEST of TS25.331. Here, the terminal's own ID (such as IMSI) and the cell number are transmitted to the radio network controller 104 via the second WLAN relay device 105b. In a mobile communication network, these signals are transmitted through a common channel or a dedicated channel. However, in this embodiment, since these signals pass through a wireless LAN network, they are transmitted as IP packets. In FIG. 22, points to be relayed are marked with black circles.

  Upon receiving the RRC connection request notification 2211, the radio network controller 104 uses the terminal information management unit 202 to check whether the ID of the terminal 101c is new. In the present embodiment, since the terminal 101c was originally in the stopped state 2201, it is determined to be new. If it is new, the radio network controller 104 creates an entry for the terminal 101c in the terminal information management means 202, and confirms the current location indicated in cell units. In the case of the present embodiment, since the terminal 101c exists in the cell L2, the location of the cell L2 is registered.

  Next, the radio network controller 104 transmits an RRC connection setup request 2212 (RRC CONNECTION SETUP in 3GPP TS25.331) for RRC connection, and since the terminal 101c is capable of RRC connection, an RRC connection setup response 2213 is sent. (RRC CONNECTION SETUP COMPLETE in 3GPP TS25.331) is transmitted to the radio network controller 104 via the radio network controller 104. Through the above processing, the terminal 101c is registered in the UTRAN controlled by the radio network controller 104. This state is (a) of FIGS. In this state, the terminal 101c is not registered in the packet control device 106 and the mobile network packet relay device 107.

  Returning to FIG. 15, after registering in the UTRAN, the terminal 101 c performs location registration processing for the packet control apparatus 106 (S 1507). This process is shown in the sequence diagram of FIG. In the GPRS specifications shown in 3GPP TS 23.060 and TS 29.060, location registration to the SGSN is performed by ATTACH processing. This embodiment differs from the 3GPP specifications in the following two points. First, a signal to the SGSN is relayed by the second WLAN access network 103b, the second WLAN relay device 105b, and the wireless network control device 104 of the wireless LAN network. Second, in 3G, the signal of the mobile communication network is relayed. The ATTACH processing for performing location registration for both the circuit-switched domain (Circuit-Switched domain) and the packet-switched domain (Packet-Switched domain) of the core network is integrated, but in this embodiment, ATTACH is performed for the wireless LAN network. , Performing ATTACH processing to the packet switching domain.

  Regarding the first difference, since the terminal 101c does not have the address of the packet control device 106, the terminal 101c transmits the signal to the core network by RRC (Initial Direct Transfer in 3GPP TS25.331, Uplink Direct Transfer). , Downlink Direct Transfer). When a signal directed to the packet control device 106 by Direct Transfer is input from the terminal 101c, the wireless network relay device 104 determines whether or not it is Direct Transfer, and the signal from the terminal 101c is RANAP (RAN Application Part, an abbreviation of 3GPP core network. And the RNC protocol (specified in 3GPP TS 25.413). On the other hand, the packet control device 106 outputs a signal for the terminal 101c using RANAP. In FIG. 23, the location registration request 2301 or the like represents the relay function of the radio network controller 104 as a break between arrows. The packet transmitted from the terminal 101c to the radio network controller 104 is relayed by the second WLAN access network 103b and the second WLAN relay device 105b. In FIG. 22, points to be relayed are indicated by black circles, but these descriptions are omitted in FIG. 23 and FIG. 24 to be described next.

  In addition, instead of using Direct Transfer for relaying signals between the terminal 101c and the packet control device 106, information elements such as headers and tailors indicating GPRS-related control signals are stored in each message, and wireless network control is performed. Even in a method in which the device 104 relays a signal determined to be a signal such as GPRS related to the packet control device 106 by the information element, since the terminal 101c and the packet control device 106 can communicate, the effect of the present embodiment can be obtained.

  Note that the communication between the packet control device 106 and the terminal 101c is possible even by a method in which the address of the packet control device 106 is notified to the terminal 101c and the wireless network control device 104 does not consciously perform relaying. The effect is obtained. Except for the above differences, the process of FIG. 23 is the same as the ATTACH process of TS 23.060.

  Next, a location registration sequence will be described. First, the terminal 101 c transmits a location registration request 2301 to the packet control device 106 and requests the packet control device 106 for location registration. This corresponds to the Attach Request of TS23.060. When the packet control apparatus 106 receives the location registration request 2301, the following four processes are performed between the terminal 101c and the packet control apparatus 106. First, (1) when the terminal 101c is outside the management of the packet control device 106, the packet control device 106 requests an ID such as IMSI from the terminal 101c, and ID request / response processing 2302 is performed in which the terminal 101c responds. It corresponds to Identification Request and Identification Response of TS23.060. Next, (2) 3GPP authentication processing 2303 is performed in which the packet control apparatus 106 authenticates the terminal 101c. TS23.060 corresponds to Authentication and Ciphering Request and Authentication and Ciphering Response transmitted between SGSN and UE. Send Authentication Info and Send Authentication Info Ack signals are transmitted between the SGSN and the HLR. Next, (3) IMEI confirmation processing 2304 for authenticating the terminal 101c is performed. This sequence is not essential and may not be performed. In TS23.060, it corresponds to Identity Request and Identity Response. Next, (4) position update processing is performed on the user information storage device 111 that inputs position information to the user information storage device 111. The location update process is executed by exchanging a location update request 2305, a subscriber data insertion 2306, and a location update response 2307 between the packet control device 106 and the user information storage device 111. The location update request 2305, the subscriber data insertion 2306, and the location update response 2307 correspond to Update Location, Insert Subscriber Data, Insert Subscriber Data Ack, and Update Location Ack, respectively, of TS 23.060. When these processes are completed, a location registration response 2309 indicating that the ATTACH process has been completed is transmitted from the packet control apparatus 106 to the terminal 101c.

  Returning to FIG. 15, the terminal 101c performs a PDP information activation process (S1508) following the location registration process (S1507). FIG. 24 shows PDP information of terminal 101c of packet controller 106 (TS 23.060 PDP (packet data protocol, IP in this embodiment) context) so that data can actually be transmitted. It is a figure which shows the process to initialize.

  First, the terminal 101 c transmits a PDP information activation request 2401 to the packet control device 106. At this time, since the terminal 101c has already acquired the remote IP address used in the public packet network 112, the IMSI 1601 (ID1), user ID 1602 (ID1@iw.operator.com), user profile 1604 (UP1) of the terminal 101c, The remote IP address 1608 (10.2.2.2) and the PDG transport 1610 (IP address 10.1.1.1, port 10001) are included in the PDP information activation request. Thereby, since the terminal 101c is registered and ATTACH is also performed, the state of mobility management is also PMM-attached.

  Inside the packet control apparatus 106, first, a PDP information activation request 2401 is input to the RNC communication unit 1404, and the SGSN setting unit 1401 analyzes the contents. Here, since it is the PDP information activation request 2401, the contents are registered in the terminal state management means 1402.

  The packet control device 106 creates a request for secondary PDP information activation 2402 including the IP address of the terminal 101c, and transmits it to the mobile network packet relay device 107 via the GPRS control means 1403 and the GGSN communication means 1405. The request for secondary PDP information activation 2402 includes IMSI 1901 (ID1), user ID 1902 (ID1@iw.operator.com), and the IP address of the PDG. In this embodiment, APN (Access Point Name, iw.operator.com) is omitted because it is included in the user ID, but this embodiment can be realized even if APN is included in secondary PDP information activation 2402. Is possible.

  In FIG. 19, a GGSN address 1904 and a PDG address 1905 indicate the addresses of the mobile network packet relay device 107 and the packet data relay device 108, respectively. An MM state 1906 and a PDP state 1907 indicate a mobility management (MM) state and a PDP state in GPRS, respectively. The MM state 1906 becomes PMM-attached when disconnected, and PMM-attached when location registration is completed. The PDP state indicates the presence / absence of communication, and becomes ACTIVE during communication and INACTIVE when there is no communication. The Routing Area 1909 stores the ID of the Routing Area of the terminal 101. In the present embodiment, cells M1 and M2 of the mobile communication network constitute a Routing Area: 3G, and cells L1 and L2 of the wireless LAN network constitute a Routing Area: WLAN.

  Upon receiving the secondary PDP information activation 2402, the mobile packet relay device 107 creates secondary PDP information related to the terminal 101c in the mobile network packet relay device 107. FIG. 20 is a field diagram showing secondary PDP information. The secondary PDP information is a secondary PDP context of GPRS and manages terminal information.

  Next, the packet control device 106 performs RAB setting 2403 for establishing RAB (Radio Access Bearer) which is a communication path of user data. Here, processing corresponding to RAB Setup Request, RAB Setup Response in 3NAPP TS25.413 RANAP, and RADIO BEARER SETUP, RADIO BEARER SETUP RESPONSE in TS25.331 is performed.

  When this processing is completed, the packet control device 106 performs secondary PDP information update processing 2404 for the mobile network packet relay device 107. As a result, the contents of establishing the RAB are reflected in the secondary PDP information related to the terminal 101c of the mobile network packet relay apparatus 107. When the above processing ends, the packet control device 106 transmits a PDP information activation response 2405 to the terminal 101c.

  When the above processing is completed, the connection related to the cell L2 is registered in the UTRAN and the packet control device 106. In this embodiment, since packet data is transmitted via the wireless LAN network and the mobile network packet relay device 107 is not used for packet relay, secondary PDP information activation 2402 and secondary PDP information activation are performed. 2404 can be omitted.

  Returning to FIG. 15, the terminal 101c performs a process of registering the cell M1 as a quasi-active set in order to perform a position prediction process (S1509). After the connection related to the terminal 101c is established, the radio network controller 106 searches the cell location management unit 203 for a cell adjacent to the cell L2. As a result, since only the cell M1 is extracted, a process for updating the Active Set to register the cell M1 is started. Note that in this embodiment, all adjacent cells are used as the criteria for determining cells entering the quasi-active set. However, if more detailed communication state information is collected, a terminal is further connected from the adjacent cell. The quasi-active set can be narrowed down to cells that are likely to move 101c.

  In the quasi-Active Set registration process, as shown in FIG. 24, the radio network controller 104 sets a cell L2 that is an Active Set and a quasi-Active Set cell M2 as an Active Set update request (3GPP RRC: Active Set Update) 2406. Store and output to the terminal 101c via the wireless LAN network. On the other hand, the terminal 101c determines that there is no problem in adding these pieces of information, and adds the cell L2 and the cell M1 to the Active Set and the quasi-Active Set, respectively. Then, the terminal 101c outputs an Active Set update response (ACTIVE SET UPDATE COMPLETE in 3GPP TS25.331) 2407 to the radio network controller 104 to notify the completion of the Active Set update process. When the setting of the Active Set of the terminal 101c is completed, the radio network controller 104 sets the Active Set and the quasi-Active Set of the terminal 101c in the terminal information management unit 202 to L2 and M1, respectively. This completes the registration of the data of the terminal 101c in the UTRAN controlled by the radio network controller 104.

  Next, processing when the terminal 101c connected to the WLAN as described above moves from the WLAN to the mobile communication network area will be described.

  FIG. 25 shows the connection of the terminal 101c via the mobile communication network when the connection of the terminal 101c existing in the cell L2 of the wireless LAN network is established through the wireless LAN network and moves to the cell M1 during communication. It is a figure which shows the process which switches.

  Referring to FIG. 15, terminal 101c determines whether a wireless LAN or a mobile communication network has been detected. When the terminal 101c enters the cell M1, it proceeds to 3G link establishment processing to detect the mobile communication network, and establishes a link between the radio network controller 104 and the terminal 101c via the base station apparatus 102a (S1510). Here, the Radio Link Setup procedure described in NBAP (Node B Application Part) of 3GPP TS25.433 is used.

  Next, the terminal 101c performs an Active Set update process for updating the cell position (S1511). In this process, first, the terminal 101 c transmits a cell update request 2502 to the radio network controller 104. In this embodiment, the cell update request 2502 is assumed to be a Cell Update of 3GPP TS25.331. However, when switching of the radio network controller 104 is involved, the SRNS Relocation procedure is used, and the location of the terminal 101c as in the case of no communication. Is obtained in units of URA (UTRAN Registration Area), the same effect can be obtained by using the URA Update procedure.

  When the radio network controller 104 receives the cell update request 2502, the radio network controller 104 sets the Active Set and the quasi-Active Set of the terminal information management unit 202 to M1 and L1, respectively, and transmits a cell update response 2503 to the terminal 101c. . Thus, the movement of the terminal 101c to the cell M1 is registered in the radio network controller 104.

  Returning to FIG. 15, the terminal 101c determines whether or not the terminal 101c has moved to the mobile communication network while being connected to the wireless LAN network (S1512). In this embodiment, since the mobile communication network is detected in a state where the connection with the wireless LAN network has been established, RA update is performed (S1513). Registration with the packet controller 106 is performed in the RA update process, and the packet transmission path is switched from the wireless LAN network to the mobile communication network. As a result, the terminal state management unit 1402 of the packet control device 106 changes from WLAN to 3G.

  The RA update sequence will be described with reference to FIG. First, the terminal 101c transmits to the packet control device 106 an RA update request 2504 for performing RA update processing and location registration processing for both the packet switching domain and the circuit switching domain. Upon receiving this RA update request 2504, the packet control device 106 performs a secondary PDP update process 2505 for the mobile network packet relay device 107 and a location information update process 2506 for the user information storage device 111. In the secondary PDP information update process 2505, the parameters for connecting to the mobile communication network are registered in the mobile network packet relay apparatus 107 as in the above-described secondary PDP information update process 2404. In the location information update processing 2507, the contents executed in the three sequences of the location update request 2305, the subscriber data insertion 2306, and the location update response 2307 described above are the same, and the user is informed that the terminal 101c has entered the mobile communication network area. Register in the information storage device 111.

  After these are completed, a route change request 2507 for switching the packet data from the opposite node 114 transmitted to the terminal 101c via the wireless LAN network to the mobile communication network is sent from the packet controller 106 to the packet data relay device 108. Output. In FIG. 1, the two are not directly connected, but since these are transmitted as IP packets, the mobile network packet relay device 107 relays the packets.

  In transmission via the mobile network packet relay apparatus 107 after switching, there are several options for the transmission method with the packet data relay apparatus 108. Either of them needs to be a system based on IP, but a tunneling system such as Mobile IP, GTP (GPRS Tunneling Protocol), or IP-in-IP can be used. When these tunnel methods are used, encapsulation is performed by adding the protocol portion selected by the input side device (packet data relay device 108 or mobile network packet relay device 107) to the original packet header, and the opposite side device. Needs to release the capsule and extract the original packet data.

  Therefore, in the route change request 2507, the IP address of the mobile network packet relay device 107, and the identifier of the tunnel method if possible can be described. Based on this identifier and the IP address of the mobile network packet relay device 107, the packet data relay device 108 changes the tunnel creation method. When the tunnel setting is completed, the packet data relay apparatus 108 performs U-plane switching processing according to the path change request 2507 and outputs a path change response 2508 to the packet control apparatus 106.

  When the secondary PDP information update processing 2505, the location update processing 2506, and the route change processing 2507, 2508 are completed, the packet control apparatus 106 transmits an RA update response 2509 to the terminal 101c, and the processing is completed on the mobile communication network side. Indicates. This completes the registration process for the cells M1 and L2.

  In the present embodiment, the cell update request 2502 is output from the terminal 101c. Conversely, the method of performing the cell update process from the radio network controller 104 using the Active Set Update procedure can obtain the same effect. If the wireless network control device 104 has a packet dividing / integrating function, it is possible to connect using both the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN network at the same time.

  Returning to FIG. 15, since the terminal 101c is in the cell M1, the neighboring cell is registered as a quasi-active set in the quasi-active set process (S1514). In FIG. 25, the quasi-Active Set registration sequence is shown by a quasi-Active Set (L2) registration process 2511 and a cell (M2) registration process 2512. The cell L2 registration 2511 is a process similar to the process of updating the Active Set from the signal 704 to the signal 716 in FIG. 7 and the registration of the cell M2.

  When the MM state of the terminal is PMM-Idle, the packet control device 106 deletes the tunnels related to the mobile network packet control device 107 and the packet data relay device 108. When the tunnel is deleted, the packet control apparatus 106 instructs the radio network control apparatus 104, and the Active set of the terminal information management unit 202 of the radio network control apparatus 104 is also not registered.

  In the third embodiment described above, it becomes possible to perform registration with the same contents as when the terminal 101c in the area of the wireless LAN network is in the mobile communication network, and from the wireless LAN network to the mobile communication network. By omitting the area processing, an effect of shortening the switching time can be obtained.

  Further, by notifying the terminal of the IP address of the wireless network control device 104 and realizing communication between the terminal 101c and the wireless network control device 104 in the wireless LAN network, the wireless network control device 104 can be brought into an area only for the wireless LAN network. It is possible to control existing terminals.

  Further, the wireless network control device 104 relays the signal between the terminal 101c and the packet control device 106 with protocol conversion, so that even if the terminal 101c does not have the address of the packet control device 106, the area of the wireless LAN network And communication when a plurality of packet control devices are connected to the same wireless network control device 104.

  Further, when moving from the mobile communication network side to the area of the wireless LAN network, the packet control device 107 switches the packet data from the opposite node 114 by the route change request 2507 to the packet data relay device 108, so that the terminal 101c Compared with the case where the route is switched by performing registration with the packet data relay device 108, an effect of shortening the time required for switching can be obtained.

  The wireless communication system according to the present invention is capable of communicating with a mobile communication network and the wireless LAN network out of information input from a WLAN relay device that controls connection of one or more wireless LAN access (Local Area Network) networks. A wireless communication system having a configuration for outputting necessary connection information to the terminal when a possible terminal performs communication in the wireless LAN network, and realizing a seamless handover of packet communication between the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN It is useful as a communication system.

The figure which shows the structure of the radio | wireless communications system by Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the structure of the radio network control apparatus by Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the structure of the WLAN relay apparatus by Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the field of the cell location management means by Embodiment 1 of this invention The figure which shows the protocol stack of the packet communication of the mobile communication network by Embodiment 1 of this invention The figure which shows the field of the information which the terminal by Embodiment 1 of this invention hold | maintains The figure which shows the sequence of the authentication / setting process at the time of the movement destination prediction by Embodiment 1 of this invention The figure which shows the information field which the radio network controller by Embodiment 1 of this invention hold | maintains The figure which shows the information field which the wireless LAN relay apparatus by Embodiment 1 of this invention hold | maintains The figure which shows the protocol stack of the packet communication of the wireless LAN by Embodiment 1 of this invention The figure which shows the sequence of the connection setting process at the time of the terminal cell approach by Embodiment 1 of this invention The figure which shows the protocol stack of the control signal of wireless LAN by Embodiment 1 of this invention The figure which shows the sequence of the cutting process by Embodiment 2 of this invention The block diagram which shows the internal structure of the packet control apparatus of this Embodiment Diagram showing the operation of the terminal Field diagram of data held by terminal Field diagram of data held by radio network controller Field diagram of data held by WLAN relay device Field diagram of data held by packet controller Field diagram of data held by mobile packet relay device Field diagram of data held by packet data relay device The figure which shows a process when a terminal connects to a wireless LAN network The figure which shows a process when a terminal connects to a wireless LAN network The figure which shows a process when a terminal connects to a wireless LAN network The figure which shows the process when a terminal hands over from a wireless LAN network to a mobile communication network The figure which shows the structure of the radio | wireless communications system by a prior art Diagram showing protocol stack for user data according to prior art The figure which shows the sequence which shows the operation by the prior art The figure which shows the structure of the radio | wireless communications system by a prior art

Explanation of symbols

101a, 101b terminal 102a first base station apparatus 102b second base station apparatus 103 WLAN access network 104 wireless network control apparatus 105a first WLAN relay apparatus 105b second WLAN relay apparatus 106 packet control apparatus 107 mobile network packet relay apparatus 108 packet data relay apparatus DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 109 Authentication relay apparatus 110 Authentication server 111 User information storage apparatus 112 Public packet network 201 Terminal control means 202 Terminal information management means 203 Cell position management means 204 RNC connection setting means 205 Base station communication means 206 WAG communication means 207 SGSN communication means 301 WAG Connection setting means 302 Terminal management means 303 WLAN communication means 304 RNC communication means 305 PDG communication means

Claims (24)

  Of the information input from the WLAN relay device that controls connection of one or more wireless LAN access (Local Area Network) networks, a terminal capable of communicating with the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN network is the wireless LAN network. A radio network controller for outputting connection information necessary for communication to the terminal. A wireless network control device that performs wireless control of one or more base station devices that perform wireless communication with a terminal that can communicate with a mobile communication network and a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) network, and the one or more terminals and the wireless LAN Connected to a wireless LAN access network connectable via a network, and according to a request from the wireless network control device, performs at least one of an authentication process or a connection setting process for the terminal
Furthermore, a wireless LAN relay device that creates connection information necessary for the terminal to communicate over a wireless LAN network and outputs the connection information to the wireless network control device. A wireless communication system for linking a mobile communication network and a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) network,
A terminal capable of communicating with the mobile communication network and the wireless LAN network;
A base station device that performs wireless communication to the terminal via the mobile communication network;
A radio network controller that is connected to one or more base station apparatuses and performs radio connection control of the terminal;
A wireless LAN access network wirelessly connected to the terminal via the wireless LAN network;
A wireless LAN relay device connected to the wireless network control device and the one or more wireless LAN access networks, and for controlling connection of the wireless LAN access network;
A packet data relay device connected to the wireless LAN relay device and relaying data of the wireless LAN relay device to a public packet network;
The wireless network control device selects the wireless LAN access network estimated that the terminal may be connected, and controls the estimated wireless LAN network with the authentication processing request signal and the connection setting processing request signal Output to the wireless LAN relay device,
The wireless LAN relay device performs an authentication process for determining whether or not the selected connectable wireless LAN access network is usable, and is required when the terminal uses the wireless LAN access network when the use is approved. Perform connection setting processing in a wireless LAN network, and output connection information necessary when the terminal communicates by wireless LAN to the wireless network control device,
Furthermore, the wireless communication system in which the wireless network control device outputs the connection information to the terminal. When the connection information is input to the terminal from the wireless network control device and the terminal enters a controllable area of the wireless LAN access network,
The wireless communication system according to claim 3, wherein the wireless LAN relay device establishes a connection using the connection information. The wireless network control device obtains network status information including capacity and usage or failure information of one or more base station devices and one or more wireless LAN access networks,
When the location of the terminal is a location where communication is possible simultaneously with the plurality of base station devices or the wireless LAN access network,
The wireless communication system according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the terminal selects the base station device or the wireless LAN access network with which the terminal communicates using the network state information. When the terminal enters the wireless LAN access network,
A wireless LAN relay device notifies the packet data relay device of a packet reception availability notification for notifying that the terminal can receive a packet via a wireless LAN,
The wireless communication system according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein a packet data relay device outputs data input from the public packet network to the wireless LAN relay device when the packet receivability notification is input. The terminal and the wireless network control device are:
In-communication cell set information which is a set of identifiers of the base station apparatus or the wireless LAN access network with which the terminal is communicating,
Holding the base station apparatus predicted to be connected by the terminal and prediction target cell set information which is a set of identifiers of the wireless LAN access network,
When the terminal communicates with the base station apparatus at the same time as the wireless LAN access network, and a communication error with the wireless LAN access network is equal to or less than a predetermined value,
The radio network controller changes the cell of the base station device from the in-communication cell set information to the prediction target cell set information, notifies the radio LAN relay device, and is in communication with the terminal The radio communication system according to claim 3, wherein an update request signal for updating cell set information and the prediction target cell set information is output. When disconnection of communication between the terminal and the wireless LAN relay device is detected,
The wireless LAN access network identifier is changed from the communicating cell set information to the prediction target cell set information, notified to the wireless LAN relay device, and the communicating cell set information and the predicted are transmitted to the terminal. The wireless communication system according to claim 7, wherein an update request signal for updating the target cell set information is output. Change the setting of the wireless LAN access network identifier from the communicating cell set information to the prediction target cell set information,
When the base station device or the wireless LAN access network identifier no longer exists in the communicating cell set information,
Notifying the wireless LAN relay device that the communication of the terminal has been disconnected,
The wireless communication system according to claim 7, wherein the wireless LAN relay device deletes connection information related to the terminal. A packet control device connected to the radio network control device for performing call control of packet communication by the mobile communication network;
When the connection between the packet control device and the radio network control device related to the terminal is disconnected,
The radio network controller deletes the identifier of the base station apparatus connected to the radio network controller from the communicating cell set information and the prediction target cell set information,
When an identifier no longer exists in the in-communication cell set information,
Outputting a deletion request signal for deleting connection information to the wireless LAN relay device having an identifier in the prediction target cell set information;
The radio communication system according to claim 7, wherein an update request signal for causing the terminal to update the in-communication cell set information and the prediction target cell set information is output. A terminal capable of communicating with a mobile communication network and a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) network;
A base station device that performs wireless communication to the terminal via the mobile communication network;
A radio network controller that is connected to one or more base station apparatuses and performs radio connection control of the terminal;
A wireless LAN access network wirelessly connected to the terminal via the wireless LAN network;
A wireless LAN relay device connected to the wireless network control device and the one or more wireless LAN access networks, and for controlling connection of the wireless LAN access network;
A packet data relay device connected to the wireless LAN relay device and relaying data of the wireless LAN relay device to a public packet network;
A communication method of a wireless communication system for linking a mobile communication network and a wireless LAN network,
The device
When included in a cell to be controlled by the base station device,
Selecting the wireless LAN access network that is estimated to be connected, and outputting an authentication processing request signal and a connection setting processing request signal of the terminal to the wireless network control device via the base station device; ,
The radio network controller is
Outputting the authentication processing request signal and connection setting processing request signal to the wireless LAN relay device that controls the estimated wireless LAN network;
The wireless LAN relay device is
Furthermore, the radio network controller is
A communication method of a wireless communication system that executes the step of outputting the connection information to the terminal and establishing a connection between the terminal and the selected wireless LAN access network. Communication control means for controlling communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network;
Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information of the mobile terminal;
Based on the position information, a destination prediction unit that predicts a wireless network linked to a mobile communication network that is a destination of the mobile terminal;
Connection information transmitting means for transmitting connection information for connecting the mobile terminal to the wireless network to a wireless network control apparatus that controls communication with the mobile terminal in the wireless network predicted by the destination prediction means;
A mobile communication network control device comprising:   In response to the connection information transmitted by the connection information transmitting means, a response indicating completion of connection preparation between the wireless network and the mobile terminal transmitted from the wireless network control device is received. 13. The mobile communication network control device according to claim 12, further comprising wireless network information transmission means for transmitting information to the mobile terminal through a mobile communication network. Wireless control means for controlling communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network;
Connection information receiving means for receiving connection information for the mobile terminal's own wireless network, transmitted from a mobile communication network control device that controls communication with the mobile terminal via a mobile communication network linked to the own wireless network;
In response to reception of connection information by the connection information receiving means, tunnel setting means for setting a tunnel for the mobile terminal between a relay device that relays packet communication between the own wireless network and the public packet network;
A response transmission unit that transmits a response indicating completion of connection preparation to the mobile communication network control device when a tunnel is set by the tunnel setting unit;
A wireless network control device comprising: Further comprising authentication means for authenticating whether or not the mobile terminal is registered as a terminal connected to the mobile communication network in response to reception of connection information by the connection information receiving means;
The radio network controller according to claim 14, wherein the response transmission unit transmits a response when the mobile terminal is authenticated by the authentication unit. Determining means for determining whether or not a tunnel for the detected mobile terminal is set up with the relay device when the mobile terminal is detected in the own wireless network;
In response to the determination by the determination means that a tunnel for the mobile terminal is set, a receivability notification transmission means for transmitting a packet receivability notification indicating that a packet can be received to the relay device;
The wireless network control device according to claim 14. A mobile communication network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network, and a wireless network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network linked to the mobile communication network,
The mobile communication network control device comprises:
Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information of the mobile terminal;
Based on the location information, a destination prediction unit that predicts a wireless network that is a destination of the mobile terminal;
Connection information transmission means for transmitting connection information for connecting the mobile terminal to the wireless network to a wireless network control device of the wireless network predicted by the movement destination prediction means;
With
The radio network controller is
Connection information receiving means for receiving the connection information transmitted from the mobile communication network control device;
In response to reception of connection information by the connection information receiving means, tunnel setting means for setting a tunnel for the mobile terminal between a relay device that relays packet communication between the own wireless network and the public packet network;
A wireless communication system comprising: A wireless communication system comprising: a mobile communication network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network; and a wireless network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network linked to the mobile communication network. A communication method,
A location information acquisition step in which the mobile communication network control device acquires location information of the mobile terminal;
A destination prediction step for predicting a wireless network to be a destination of the mobile terminal based on the location information;
A connection information transmission step of transmitting connection information for connecting the mobile terminal to the wireless network to a wireless network control device of the wireless network predicted in the movement destination prediction step;
A connection information receiving step for the wireless network control device to receive the connection information transmitted from the mobile communication network control device;
In response to reception of connection information in the connection information reception step, a tunnel setting step for performing tunnel setting for the mobile terminal between a relay device that relays packet communication between the own wireless network and the public packet network;
A communication method of a wireless communication system comprising: A wireless network control device for controlling communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network,
Address information storage means for storing address information of a mobile communication network control device of a mobile communication network linked to its own wireless network;
Connection request receiving means for receiving a connection request for the own wireless network transmitted from the mobile terminal;
In response to the connection request received by the connection request receiving means, the mobile terminal is connected to the own wireless network, and the mobile terminal is notified of the address information of the mobile communication network control device stored in the address information storage means. Wireless control means;
A wireless network control device comprising:   The radio network controller according to claim 19, wherein the radio controller transmits a packet addressed to the mobile communication network controller transmitted from the mobile terminal to the mobile communication network controller. A mobile communication network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network, and a wireless network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network linked to the mobile communication network,
The radio network controller is
Address information storage means for storing address information of a mobile communication network control device of a mobile communication network linked to its own wireless network;
Connection request receiving means for receiving a connection request for the own wireless network transmitted from the mobile terminal;
In response to the connection request received by the connection request receiving means, the mobile terminal is connected to the own wireless network, and the mobile terminal is notified of the address information of the mobile communication network control device stored in the address information storage means. Wireless control means;
A wireless communication system comprising:   The mobile terminal sends a registration request for requesting registration to the mobile communication network via the radio network control device using the address information of the mobile communication network control device notified from the radio network control device. The radio communication system according to claim 21, wherein the radio communication system transmits the data to a network control device. The mobile communication network control device comprises:
Determining means for determining whether the detected mobile terminal is a terminal registered in the mobile communication network when the mobile terminal is detected in the mobile communication network;
A packet receivability notification indicating that a packet can be received by a relay device that relays packet communication with the public packet network in response to the determination that the detected mobile terminal is registered in the mobile communication network. A receivable notification transmission means for transmitting
The wireless communication system according to claim 21, comprising: A wireless communication system comprising: a mobile communication network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a mobile communication network; and a wireless network control device that controls communication with a mobile terminal via a wireless network linked to the mobile communication network. A communication method,
A connection request receiving step for receiving a connection request for the local wireless network transmitted from the mobile terminal;
In response to receiving a connection request in the connection request receiving step, a connection step for connecting the mobile terminal to a local wireless network;
Address information in which the wireless network control device reads address information from address information storage means storing address information of a mobile communication network control device of a mobile communication network linked to its own wireless network, and notifies the mobile terminal of the read address information A notification step;
A communication method of a wireless communication system comprising: